Consider these five guidelines when you want to use a website for scholarly, academic research:
1. Accuracy: You want to be sure that the purpose of the literature on the website is to disseminate facts, figures, or straightforward information that seeks to inform or educate the user about a particular issue or institution.
2. Authority: The authors of the website should be experts in their particular field of expertise. They should have credentials, degrees, or licenses and be part of a bona fide, legitimate institution, which they represent.
3. Objectivity: Make sure that the subject of exploration is presented in a reasonable, dispassionate manner. It should include background information or references to other websites or literature. While the author may certainly have a point-of-view, you want to be able to glean facts from the website, or be able to quote or paraphrase passages properly.
4. Currency: Websites should be kept relatively up to date within a year’s time. Look for the date on the website to determine how old it is. News changes rapidly and a website should reflect the latest developments of an institution.
5. Coverage: You want to ensure that you have learned enough from the site and that it has answered your questions adequately. Feel free to compare it to other sites on the same topic or go to the links provided by the website. If the coverage is superficial, opt for an alternative which has richer content.
In general, a website’s domain is an indicator of whether or not the content is appropriate for research.
Look for .edu (education), .gov (government), .org (non-profit organization) instead of .com (commercial) when you are evaluating and documenting your source.
