Evaluating Websites
Evaluating Websites
Websites can contain valuable information. Unfortunately it can be tough to distinguish between reliable information and material that is either incorrect or containing a particular viewpoint or bias. There are five criteria that are generally used to try to figure out if a website should be used in a research project:
Authority
Authority is the question of whether the information was posted by someone who knows what they are talking about or is it just a person voicing an opinion.
Coverage
Coverage is the question of whether the website addresses all of the aspects of a topic or concentrates only on a part of a subject.
Objectivity
Objectivity is the question of whether information is posted with a bias or with an intention to mislead. For example, a company may have an inherent bias when putting out information about their products or an advertiser may influence what is placed on the page.
Accuracy
Accuracy is the question of where the author got their information and whether it is error-free.
Currency
Currency is the question of how recent the information is that is on the page.
One quick way to gain insight into the source for a webpage is to look at the domain name. While it is not an absolute, a .com address indicates that a company owns the website, an .edu website is either owned or hosed by an educational institution, a .gov address is owned by a government agency and an .org is owned by an organization.
Another thing to consider for a website is what the purpose of the website is. Websites can be expensive to create and maintain depending on the complexity of the page, so finding the reason that the page was created can give insight into the value of the information.