EVALUATION CRITERIA Authorship, Currency, Accuracy, Purpose
Evaluation Criteria #1: Authorship
What to look for:
Who is responsible for the site? Do the authors have authority on
the topic? Is it a commercial, governmental,
personal, or academic web site?
Evaluation Criteria #1: Authorship
.com – commercial (for profit) entities
.org – nonprofit entities
.edu – educational institutions
.gov – government agencies
.mil – US military
.int – international organizations
State or Country of origin .de - Germany .ca.us – California, US .ca - Canada
Evaluation Criteria #1: Authorship
http://www.stanford.edu/~ccarson/articles/am_left.htm
http:// is the protocol or access method
www.stanford.edu is the domain or host name
.edu is the top level domain
~ccarson/articles/am_left.htm is the directory path folder on the domain computer
Evaluation Criteria #2: Currency
Is the information on the site out-of date?
Can you determine when the site was last updated?
Do you need current information or is an older article acceptable?
Evaluation Criteria #3: Accuracy
Is there a “Works Cited” or “Bibliography” included?
Does the information agree with information you have obtained from other (reliable) sources?
Where did the Web site get its information?
Evaluation Criteria #4: Purpose
Why was the web page created?
To sell?
To inform?
To deceive?
Evaluation Criteria #4: Purpose
Always look at the domain and home page
Search for an “about us” page
Review Evaluation Criteria
Authorship Do the authors have authority on the topic? .com, .gov, .edu, .org site?
Currency Is the site out of date for your topic?
Accuracy Works cited or bibliography?
Purpose Why was the web site created? Is there an “about us” or “credits” section?
Practice Evaluating
www.martinlutherking.org