Information overload: credibility, authority, authenticity
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Criteria
for Evaluating Online Information
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
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Who? Authority
- Who is the author (individual,
organization)?
- What are the author's
qualifications (occupation, years of experience, position, education, other)?
- What is the author's
institutional affiliation, if any? (educational institution, nonprofit organization,
company, other?)
- Is contact information
given so that you can contact the author for clarification or more information?
- Is there an About Us section?
- example
What? Accuracy
- Does the content appear
to be well-researched?
- Are there editors and
fact checkers?
- Are there references
to sources of information supporting any statements made or viewpoints held?
- Are the facts documented
so that you can verify the content in another source?
- Does the item include
grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?
- If Websites are suggested or linked to, are they quality sites?
- example
When? Currency
- When was the item written or published?
- Is it important that the info you need by right up to date?
- If a Website,
- When was the site created?
- When was the content
last updated?
- Is it current enough
for your needs?
- Are there any "dead"
links?
- example
Where? Publisher
- Who is the publisher?
- How reputable is the
publisher?
- Does the publisher take
responsibility for the content?
- Is the item published as a peer-reviewed/referreed journal, scholarly journal, magazine, or news source?
Check the 
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory if you're not sure.
- If a Website,
- Where is it published? What is the domain?
- Will it be there tomorrow?
- example
Why? Purpose &
Objectivity
- Why does the source exist?
- Is there a statement
of mission, purpose, target audience?
- Does it provide many
opinions? Balanced?
- Does it contain mostly
opinions or facts?
- Is there bias in the
information and opinions presented?
- Is it selling? Promoting?
Ranting? Sponsoring?
- Does the source represent
the agenda of a political, religious, or social group or institution?
- If there is advertising, is it clearly differentiated from the informational content?
- example
- example
How? Determining What's What
- It's ok to doubt. Scepticism should be the rule of thumb when searching the Web.
- Double-check the facts and sources. Find the information in another source.
- Find other web pages
that link to this page.
If other pages link to a site, then they recommend that site for one reason
or another. Why do they recommend it? They could be fans or detractors of
the site.
- Use AlltheWeb's
URL Investigator.
Paste the url into AlltheWeb's search box.
- Do a link: search
in Google, AltaVista, or another search engine that provides this feature.
InGoogle, type link:url into the search box. If you find no links, try
a shorter portion of the url, stopping after each /.
ex. link:http://www.washington.edu/
- Look for more info about and by the author
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"Googling someone"
can be revealing, but be sure to consider the source. If the viewpoint is
radical or controversial, expect to find detractors.
- In Google, search
for the name as a phrase.
ex. "Jane Doewebauthor"
- In Google, search
for the name as a phrase with * between the first and last name.
ex. "John * Doewebauthor"
- Search WorldCat to see if libraries around the world hold books published by the author.
- Search credible subject databases to see if the author has published scholarly journal articles about the topic. Some of these databases are freely available online, others are proprietary databases that many libraries subscribe to.
Will you find better
resources using librayr databases? Would a book or journal article be more
appropriate?
For reference help, contact
Jessica Albano
(Communication Studies Librarian at the UW Libraries)
Created: 19 April 2004
Sources for information
used on this page were adapted from:
Additional
Readings:
