Whether you’re a student, employee, or lifelong learner, using the appropriate sources to support your contributions is essential. With so much information available online, how do you navigate the digital landscape to locate the most relevant and reliable information?
To successfully choose a source you should be able to examine an online source and evaluate it to determine if it is appropriate for your topic.
There are some standard criteria you can use to help you determine if a source is really something you would feel confident in using for your finished research project. Remember ALL information must be evaluated but the evaluation process is even more critical for information you find using the World Wide Web. Anyone can publish on the internet. There is no editor, editorial board, peer reviewed process for the "free", "visible" WWW available to anyone who has a computer and an Internet service provider. Therefore, it is critical you be aware of the basic criteria for evaluating all information plus some additional criteria that should be considered for Web information sources.
There is a vast amount of information available from a wide variety of sources. As a scholar you should be able to choose which information best and most reliably helps you answer your research questions.
Any source or information you find must be evaluated, but if you find anything on the internet you must be even more critical. Anyone can publish online.
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