The
Internet is a great resource, but it is also a public forum, where anyone can
make a claim or an assertion. If you find an article that provides relevant
information for your research topic, you should take care to investigate the
source to make sure it is valid and reliable.
It is your responsibility as a researcher to
find and use the trustworthy
sources. There are
several ways to investigate your source.
Author
In most cases, you should stay away from
Internet information that doesn't list an author. While the information you
find may be true, it is more difficult to validate information if you don't
know the credentials of the author.
If
the author is named, you will want to find his/her web page to:
- Verify
educational credits
- Discover if
the writer is either published in a scholarly journal
- Verify that
the writer is employed by a research institution or university
URL
If the information is linked to an
organization, try to determine the reliability of the sponsoring organization.
One tip is the url ending. If the site name ends with .edu, it is most
likely an educational institution. Even so, you should be aware of political
bias.
If a site ends in
.gov, it is most likely
a reliable government web site. Government sites are usually good sources for
statistics and objective
reports.
Sites that end in .org are usually
non-profit organizations. They can be very good sources or very poor sources,
so you'll have to take care to research their possible agendas or political
biases, if they exist.
For instance, collegeboard.org is the
organization that provides the SAT and other tests. You can find valuable
information, statistics, and advice on that site. PBS.org is a non-profit
organization that provides educational public broadcasts. It provides a wealth
of quality articles on its site.
Other sites with the .org ending are advocacy
groups that are highly political in nature. White it is entirely possible to
find reliable information from a site like this, as always, you should be
mindful of the political slant and acknowledge this in your work.
Online
Journals and Magazines
A reputable journal or magazine should contain
a bibliography for every article. The list of sources within that bibliography
should be pretty extensive, and it should include scholarly, non-Internet
sources.
Check for statistics and data within the
article to back up the claims made by the author. Does the writer provide
evidence to back up his statements?
News
Sources
Every television and print news source has a
web site. To some extent, you can rely on the most trusted news sources, but
you should not rely on them exclusively. After all, network and cable news
stations are involved in entertainment. Think of them as a stepping stone to
more reliable sources.
In determining good or bad
information we must consider:
·
Most scientific papers or pdf file are the best
source of information in the web even though it contains difficult words.
·
Most websites are not created equal and people
and friends tend to provide either good or bad information for the reason
marketing strategy among commercial websites.
Webpages with more citations and links or from
more unbiased, reputable organizations, will provide with better and reliable
information.
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