BI451W – Biology Internship, Writing Intensive: How do I evaluate a website?

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Websites can have their place in the world of academia, but with countless websites with varying quality and agendas in your search results, it's important to be able to determine whether sites are reliable or appropriate to scholarship or a personal research need.

This takes practice and critical thinking. This guide lists some questions that you should ask yourself before accepting or rejecting a website for its scholarly value. If in doubt about the merits of a website for research purposes, please discuss it with your instructor or a librarian.

Lateral Reading

Navigate away from the site itself, and see what other sources have to say about the website or organization. Even taking a look at the Wikipedia page can help!

Click Restraint

The first few search results aren't always the best or most helpful sources to use, so take some time to scroll through your results--even looking at the second page!--before you pick a few to click on.

For more on fact checking, see the Crash Course videos below, or see our Misinformation guide:

Authority

• Can the authoring body of the page be determined?
• Is there contact information such as address, phone number or e-mail address?
• Does the author have expertise, such as an advanced degree or an affiliation with a reputable organization?
• Do other reputable organizations link to the site? Perform a 'link' search in Google.
  (e.g., go to http://www.google.com and type in "link:http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html")

Accuracy

• Is there supporting documentation such as a bibliography, footnotes, or linked text to indicate the sources of the information?
• Are there misspellings or grammatical errors?
• Can anyone post to the website? (e.g. Wikipedia)

Objectivity

• Does the authoring body have a bias or agenda such as with an advocacy or lobby group? If so, is this bias stated or hidden?
• Is inflammatory, emotional or political language being used?
• If the subject matter is controversial, are all views represented?

Currency

• How current is the information? Are there references to recent developments?
• Are dates included (e.g. "First Posted" date, "Last Updated" date)?
• How many dead links are on the page?

Content

• Does the content supply more images or advertising than text?
• How detailed is the information supplied? If an overview, perhaps a library reference or e-reference book would be more helpful.
• If a journal article, is it peer-reviewed (that is, has it been evaluated and approved by scholarly peers prior to publication)?
• Has the site been rated for its content by a reputable rating group?
• Can the content be viewed without requiring special technology or fees?

Crash Course's series Navigating Digital Information has a number of great videos explaining different aspects of evaluating information.

Overview Videos

Who is behind the information?

What is the evidence for their claims?

What do other sources say?