The extent of information on the internet makes it possible to gather information from around the world. At the same time, the 'net is not regulated. This means that the "safety net" of peer review and the critical eye of editors do not monitor the content of web documents. To compensate for this, you will need to evaluate the quality of every web resource you consider using for the class.

When I evaluate a website, I use the criteria established by Elizabeth Kirk, which can be found at http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/education/net.html. Please read this document in full. The criteria and a brief list of questions to ask when you read web documents are included here:

• Authorship Who is the author of the piece? Is the author well known in the field? Is he or she even identified? Are there other internet publications by this author that you trust? Does the author support his/her statements with other published work? Is there a biography provided for the author? Can you contact the author to ask for further information?
• The Publishing Body Is the name of any organization given in the document or is a link provided? Is this a recognized and respected organization in the field? Is it an appropriate organization for this topic? Are you able to tell what the relationship is between the author and the publishing body, assuming, of course, that it is not self published? Is this page sanctioned by the publishing body, or is it on a personal home page, established and maintained by the author?
• Point of View or Bias Is the organization with which the author is publishing one that has a specific bias or stake in the issue at hand? Is it on a corporate website? Is it on the website of an organization that has a political or philosophical agenda? Remember that bias exists, even when it is a professional organization with a good reputation. Keep in mind what that bias is and how it might influence the form and content of the web page document.
• Referral to and/or Knowledge of the Literature Does the document include a bibliography? Does the author appropriately reference the work of others, complete with citation? Does the author display knowledge of the field that is consistent, at least at its base, with the theories, schools and viewpoints within the field? Does the author discuss the limitations of his/her perspective/approach/technique? If the subject is controversial, does the author acknowledge this?
• Accuracy or Verifiability of Details If it is a research report, are the research methods described as well as the findings? Are the methods appropriate to the topic? If the method lends itself to this, are they replicable? Are traditional print resources cited in a bibliography? Are links provided to web and other internet-based documents? Can all of these be checked for accuracy?
• Currency Are dates provided on for material included on the page? Is the page itself dated? Does it include information on the most recent update? If the page is updated on a constant basis, is there an indication of when this occurs? Is there a copyright date included?

In addition to Kirk's list, the following sources may be helpful to you as you evaluate sites. You may notice that her criteria are consistent with those proposed by others. Still, you may want to look through the following sites to find an organization system with which you are comfortable. Overall, though, these are all essentially consistent with each other.

• How to Critically Analyze Information Sources, at http://urisref.library.cornell.edu/skill26.htm
• Evaluating Quality on the Net, at http://www.tiac.net/users/hope/findqual.html
• Evaluating Internet Resources, at http://freenet.buffalo.edu/~library/eval.html
• Evaluating Sources-- A RESOURCE GUIDE, at http://www-scf.usc.edu/~mreynold/comp/evalout.html

• Critical Thinking and the World Wide Web: Guide for Evaluating a Web Page, at http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/eval/checklist.html
• Evaluating World Wide Web Information, at http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/library_info/instruction/gs175/3gs175/evaluation.html
• Evaluating Websites for Educational Uses, at http://www.sfu.ca/~jfremont/evalwebsites.html
• Bookmark Tutorial - Evaluating Resources, at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu:8000/bkmk/select.html
• Academic Technology: Evaluating Websiteshttp://www.gallaudet.edu/~dmmcglyn/workshops/evalquestions.html

• Using the Internet in Research, at http://www.csp.edu:100/schuler/fastlane/iresearch/iesearch.htm
• Evaluation of information sources, at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm

Any questions? Contact the course developer and professor, Kathleen Gilbert, at gilbertk@indiana.edu.
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For information about this work, please contact Kathleen Gilbert at gilbertk@indiana.edu. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce and distribute copies of this work for non-profit educational purposes, provided that copies are distributed at or below cost, and that the author, source, and copyright notice are included on each copy. This permission is in addition to rights of reproduction granted under Sections 107, 108, and other provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act. Before making any distribution of this work, please contact Kathleen Gilbert to ascertain whether you have the current version.