Using Internet Sources:
How do you choose good ones?
For uncritical users, the World Wide Web
can be a tangle of misinformation. A savvy
consumer of information needs to know
how to navigate through the tangle.
The Internet is an amazing source of information.
You can find out almost anything you want to learn about
there. The problem is that there is a lot of junk among the
jewels to be found on the Internet, and you need to be able
to tell the difference.
Anyone can put up a website. A talented 12-year-old
can probably construct a site that looks as professional as
one put together by a PhD. If you are only looking for
entertainment, mikeysreallycoolwebsite.com is probably
just fine. But what if you are doing serious research for a
project at school? What if it is important that the
information you are accessing is up-to-date, unbiased, and
supported by the very best scientific research? In that
case it is very important that you know that you are NOT
relying on Mikey's Really Cool Website. You must know
how to judge the sites you find.
(The following is adapted from "Before You Cite a Site" )
The four Ws of Site Validation
What are some of the things we need to look for in a
website to determine if the information it contains is valid?
This brings us to the Who, When, Where and What of site
validation.
Who wrote the site? Is the author of the site qualified to
voice his or her viewpoints about the subject matter? Are
the author's credentials mentioned? Even if the person is
identified as a PhD, what is his or her field? A person with
a doctorate in mechanical engineering is probably not
qualified to give you good information about the current
understanding of human evolution.
Is the site sponsored or co-sponsored by an individual or
group? If so, have you heard of the group before? Is
contact information for the author included in the site? An
email message to the webmaster can get you the
information you need if it is not readily available. Don't be
afraid to ask for it. Looking to see who is talking is the first
and probably the most important step in site validation. If
you can't find an author or webmaster, look for another
site. There is plenty of information out there.
When was the site created? When was it last revised? If
the creation date is not posted directly on the site, you can
sometimes determine how current it is by clicking on its
links. If the links don't work, the site has probably not been
updated in a while. Up-to-date information is essential in
research for most purposes in science, but there might be
information of historical interest such as the original article
published by Watson and Crick or a history of the life of
Charles Darwin. In these cases, older sites would be
alright.. Again, an email to the author or webmaster can
help you determine how current the information on the site
is if you can't find it in the site itself.
Where is the site from? Where did it originate? Is it
buried in someone's Internet account (http://www/
monmouth.com/user_pages/malim/) or does it have its own
domain name (http://www.rutgers.edu) Is the domain name
reputable? Is it a paid service provider or part of an
organization?
What does the URL tell you about the site? Does the
URL indicate that this site is an educational institution
(.edu) or government (.gov)? If it is a commercial site
(.com), is it a site you can trust? A .edu URL is usually a
source of reliable information, as is a .gov site. A site with
a .com URL needs to be checked out critically, however. If
the information is clearly intended to sell you something, it
is probably not useful for most research purposes.
Go to the site's homepage to find out what organization
backs the site. On the homepage there will usually be a
link to a page called something like "About Us". If you click
on that, you will find out lots about the organization, where
they are located, who is in it, and especially if they have
any particular mission or political axe to grind that might
affect the validity of the information you find there.
Again, if you can't find out who the organization is, don't
use the site!
What are they saying on the site? What links are on the
page, and who are they? What is the scope of the topic?
Is the information too broad, too shallow, or just the right
depth? Is it a special interest site that might publish
information with a strong bias? Suppose you were
researching stem cells, for example. If you found the topic
in a website, it would be important for you to know if that
website was put up by a right-to-life organization. Knowing
that, you would know that the writers opinions were
probably colored by their ethical beliefs. That would allow
you to balance your research by looking for other
information in a site with the opposite bias. Ideally,
however, identifying the site allows you to keep looking
until you find sites put up by unbiased organizations that
will provide solid technical information and present all sides
of an issue.
If you do cite the site: The correct form for a
bibliography citation includes all the information you have
found:
Name, Author. "The Title of the Article". Name of the
organization or Journal. Date written: # of pages.
Online. Date you accessed it. available:http:etc.com
Here's an example:
Hopkin, Karen. “The Risks on the Table”. Scientific
American. April, 2001: 2 pages. Online. accessed:
4-10-2001.available: http:sciam.com/
2001/0401issue/0401hopkin.html#explore
To list this same article as an endnote or footnote:
1 Karen Hopkin,. “The Risks on the Table”. Scientific
American. April, 2001 http:sciam.com/
2001/0401issue/0401hopkin.html#explore, p5
To use it again later on in the paper:
3Hopkin 6 (author and page number)
Adapted from:
Caruso, Carol. "Before You Cite a Site".
Educational Leadership. November 1997,
pp. 24-25