The relatively low cost of Web publishing has made it possible for virtually anyone to publish their opinions about a particular topic. While this expansion of access to information production and distribution is certainly good for society as a whole, it presents new challenges for those doing research on the World Wide Web. Unlike the school library, which contains a pre-filtered collection of information resources chosen by education professionals, the World Wide Web offers access to an open network of information ranging from the very useful, to the totally useless, to the downright erroneous.
There is little to stop someone from literally lying about a particular topic on their Website. As such, a certain amount of skepticism is healthy when doing research on the Web; and, when using the World Wide Web as an information resource, you must learn how to make judgements for yourself about the accuracy of the information that you find there. The list of questions below is designed to help you do so. You should get in the habit of evaluating every Web resource that you visit according this list.
(Note to teachers: We recommend that you alter your normal requirements for source citation to require your students to provide written answers to these questions for every Website that is cited or listed as a bibliographic reference in their work.)
- Is this an Institutional, Commercial, or "Fan" Website?
- Websites can generally be classed according to one of the three categories listed above. Institutional Websites are those that are produced by established institutions or organizations which are supported by public funds such as universities, government agencies, museums, non-profit organizations, and the like; Commercial Websites are those that are produced by for-profit entities or those that are profit generating; and "Fan" Websites are those that are produced by individuals with a personal interest in the subject treated by the Website.
- What is the degree of public accountability for this Website?
- In general, Institutional Websites have the highest degree of public accountability and are, therefore, more likely than Commercial and Fan sites to publish accurate information. Because their survival depends on public funding, these institutions are under a high degree of public and political scrutiny. If a professor at a major university is found to be publishing false data on a subject, the university is likely to loose funding and the professor is likely to loose her or his job. It is much less likely that a corporation presenting questionable data on a Website trying to sell you something will face any negative consequences as a result of the practice, and there is virtually no public accountability, legal or otherwise, for individuals maintaining Fan Websites.
- Is the Website financially supported and if so by whom?
- Many Websites are financially support by institutions or organizations other than those directly responsible for the site and/or its content. Take note of the sources of any such external support.
- Are the institutions or individuals responsible for the Website likely to be biased about the subject that the site is devoted to?
- Take some time to determine the likely biases of the individuals and institutions that make the Website possible. All Website producers are biased in some way. As information consumers it is important that you understand the likely biases of content providers and the limits that these biases place on the types of information that the site is likely to publish. The goal of a Commercial Website is to sell you something, whether directly or indirectly; the goal of a Fan Website is cultivate the love of a particular hobby or interest; and the goal of an Institutional Website is to advance the work of the institution. As such, a Website supported and maintained by the logging industry is not likely to publish data showing that logging has a negative effect on the environment; a dedicated fan of off-road racing is not very likely to publish on her or his Website information about the negative environmental impact of the sport; and a White House Website is not likely to publish a Marxist critique of American Democracy. Understanding what types of information are most likely to be missing from a particular Website will help direct you in your future research.
- What are the credentials of the people who maintain the Website?
- Are the credentials of the Website's content providers and editors clearly posted, and do these credentials establish them as experts in their field? A research scholar with a history of working and publishing on a particular topic is more likely to provide accurate information on a topic than an individual with a non-professional interest.
- Does the Website publish its editorial policies?
- Reputable Websites will have a clear statement of the editorial practices that guide the determination of what information gets published on the Website.
- Is the information published on the Website subject to an external review process?
- The most reputable information available on the World Wide Web is the information provided by Websites that have a system of external review for determining which information resources they publish. External review is the process of submitting an information resource for review to a group of experts in the field who do not work directly for the publisher. These experts review the resource and submit a recommendation to the publisher as to whether or not the resource is suitable for publication. This process, known as Peer Review, is the same process that is used by academic publishers to determine which articles get printed in scholarly journals and what books gets published. The best and most reputable Websites apply the same process and standards to their Web resources.
- What is the timeliness of the information provided?
- Some information is time sensitive, and other information is not. If, for example, you were doing a report on the current status of women in the workplace, you would want to gather the most up-to-date information possible. ( If all of your data was from 1952, your conclusions would be suspect.) If, however, you were doing a report on Milton's Paradise Lost, you might find that an edition printed in 1952 is a more accurate reproduction of the original manuscript than a newer edition printed in 1992 which contains many errors in transcription. When doing research on the Web, it is important to determine whether or not the information provided on a Website is time-sensitive. If it is, the Website should make clear when the information was collected and when it was last updated. If it does not, you should consider the information suspect.
- Has the Website itself been reviewed by external reviewers or won any awards?
- Most Websites will publish a list of Website Reviews and of Awards that the site has won. Many of these reviews and awards are meaningless, but not all. If a Website has been positively reviewed by a recognizable entity such as "The New York Times" or "The Chronicle of Higher Education" or it has received an award from a known agency such as, for example, the National Endowment for the Humanities, this is a sign that experts in the field consider the information provided on the Website to be accurate and reputable.
- Is the information provided by this Website consistent with other information that you have found on the topic?
- In the arena of scientific investigation data is considered more reliable if scientists working independent of each other are able to duplicate the same results when conducting the same experiment. In general, the same basic premise should guide you as you asses the reliability of the information that you find on the World Wide Web. If you find three different Websites, on Institutional, one Commercial, and one Fan, all of which, despite their unique biases, report the same general information on a topic, this is a good sign that the information is probably accurate. If, however, you find an Institutional Website and a Fan Website that report one set of facts and you find a Commercial Site on the same topic that reports the opposite, you should be a bit suspicious and look for more duplication data. It could be that the Commercial site has more up-to-date data and is actually the more accurate, but you cannot just assume that this is so because their data supports your thesis. When there is not a clear trend in the information that you find across Websites, you must work to understand the nature of the discrepancies and to validate accordingly.
- Based on your answers to the above questions, rate how accurate you believe the information provided on the Website to be on a scale from one to five (five being the most accurate) and give a brief written justification for your ranking.
- For a Website to get a reliability ranking of 5 it should rate very highly on all the questions posed above. A typical "5" Website would, for example, be an Institutional Website that is published and edited by established scholars, that is peer reviewed, that publishes its editorial policies, that has been favorably reviewed by a known entity, that documents the timeliness of its information, that does not have a bias that is likely to taint the information that you are interested in, and that publishes information that is consistent with what you have found elsewhere. A typical "3" Website might be a Fan Website that has been favorably reviewed by a known entity, that documents the timeliness of its information, that publishes information that is consistent with what you have found elsewhere, but that is likely to be biased because of its fan nature and that has no process of external review or editorial oversight.