Evaluating Websites

The Internet is a unique source of valuable information, but researchers must select and evaluate websites carefully before including information from them in a research project. Sites can be posted without benefit of editorial review and, so, are not uniformly accurate and authoritative. Use the following criteria to evaluate each website you select as you also gather the information you will need for your works cited page.

URL or Web address

What purpose for the site is suggested by the domain name?

What does the site’s Mission Statement or About Us link tell you about the purpose of the site?

Is the site a personal page with a ~ or % in the address? (If yes, evaluate author carefully.)

Does the site present subjective opinion statements or objective information?

Author

How can you contact them? What are the credentials?

OR

Sponsoring Organization

Authoritative reputation? Point-of-view?

Name of Web site
Specific page or article title
Date of last update/copyright

Links are active? Is information current?

Date you read the Web site.

Why would you recommend this website for research?