EVALUATING WEBSITES AND SOURCES
Tutorial 45
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Today’s objective is that you learn how to be critical in
selecting the sites you are getting information from.
The web is full of academic information;
you only need to learn how to find it.
It is important to know how to evaluate the
information you want to cite.
• We will start with the evaluation of web
pages/ sites and continue with evaluation
of sources.
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Evaluation of web pages/ sites:
Start with looking at the URL domain,
(between http:// and the first /)
http://usuniversity.edu/
Is it a personal page?
Does it have a personal name followed by a
tilde, a percent sign, or words like “people”,
“users” or “members”?
Is the server a commercial ISP like aol.com
or geocities.com?
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Important issues while looking
at the domain:
• Is the domain educational? “.edu” or a
nonprofit organization? “.org”
• Is the domain commercial? “.com”
• Is the domain a government site? “.gov”,
“.mil”
• Is the country code from the country you
are looking for? “.us”, “.ca”, “.uk”
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Determining who is the “publisher”, agency, or person
operating the “server”, (between http:// and the first /):
• http://circuit.sdsu.edu/ = Circuit. San Diego
State University
• http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/
content/standards/standards.pdf = American
Library Association
• http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED430564.pdf
= Educational Resource Information Center
• https://www.ffa.org/programs/grantsandschol
arships/Scholarships/ = FFA
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You also need to learn how to
identify the University acronym
• usuniversity.edu (United States University)
• ucsd.edu (University of California in San Diego)
• You will find that with a URL within United
States, the Country is not mentioned:
– digitalcommons.calpoly.edu
– minds.wisconsin.edu
– docs.lib.purdue.edu
– deepblue.lib.umich.edu
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For the rest of the world, you need to
learn the acronyms for each country
• “ca” for Canada, “mx” for Mexico, “es” for
Spain, “au” for Australia or “uk” for United
Kingdom.
– usir.salford.ac.uk
– discovery.ucl.ac.uk
– eprints.qut.edu.au
– fcm.ens.uabc.mx
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Narrow your results by domain:
• If searching Google – Advanced Search,
http://www.google.com/advanced_search you
can also narrow your results by Site or
domain.
• For example search google advanced search
“web site evaluation” and limit the domain to
site:.edu
• Or limit your results to a domain like .org or
.gov
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Look for the background of the
site, truncate back the URL
• i.e. delete the end characters of the URL
stopping just before each /. Press enter and
check, you will find interesting information or
none.
– www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/pages/scholarshi
ps.aspx
– www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/
– www.gatesfoundation.org/
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Find out who is the author or the responsible
body. Google is a good source.
• Search Google Blog Search and learn what
they say about the web site.
• Caution: do not use the information if there is no
confirmation about the author or a page update.
• You need to critically question everything you
find on the web. Where did the author retrieve
the information? Are they reliable sources?
• Well-developed pages include links to other
pages with the opposite point of view
• Do the links work?
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Check in alexa.com what are the webpages that
link to this particular page
Copy and paste or type the URL you are
evaluating, click search and click on the “get
details” button:
– Find out the traffic of the webpage
– Ownership information
– Related links to other sites who visited the
page
– Sites linking to the webpage
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Evaluating Information Sources
• You will need to ask these questions, whether
your source is printed or online, if it is a book,
an image or article from a journal, newspaper,
a website or any source you want to cite:
– Authority
– Timeliness
– Accuracy
– Coverage
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Authority:
• Is there an author? What is the author’s
affiliation? Has the author produced more
works? Are these works cited? Can you
contact the author?
• Is the domain in the URL “.edu”
(education), “.com” (commercial) or “.gov
(Government)?”
• Is there a tilde (~) in the URL? This may
indicate a personal web directory
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Timeliness:
• Is there a date when the research started
or the document was created?
• Has the document been revised, edited or
updated?
• If it is a website, when was the last time
the site was updated?
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Accuracy:
• Is the source in a peer-reviewed
publication or journal? If not, can you
verify the factual information or who is
responsible for the information?
• If it contains graphs, charts or images, are
the sources clear?
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Coverage:
• For online sources from a website, is the
document complete?
• Make sure citations and quotations are
correct.
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For more information see:
• http://library.sdsu.edu/reference/research/evaluatin
g-information from San Diego State University
• http://help.library.ubc.ca/evaluating-andciting-sources/evaluating-informationsources/ from University of British Columbia.
• http://library.albany.edu/usered/eval/evalweb/ from
University at Albany Libraries
• http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Inte
rnet/Evaluate.html from Berkeley Libraries
•
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•
How are we taking you on this journey of
knowledge?
• Do you have some
questions?
Do you have
suggestions?
Are you familiar with
URL
Are you evaluating
your sources before
citing them?
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For more information
• Please contact
• M.L.S Catalina Lopez
• clopez@usuniversity.edu
• (619) 477 6310 Ext 2017
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