Web Site Evaluation Criteria

Authorship

• Authors should be identified, with appropriate credentials evident.

Currency

• Dates should be provided for each source, which are current or timely enough to be appropriate to the research paper topic.
• Web resources, both individual pages and databases, should be updated regularly.

Recommendations

• It should be evident that Web resources have been through some review process or recommended by reliable outside sources.
• Web resources include online databases, which moderate information like their print counterparts, as well as personal pages.

Perspective

• Biases and affiliations should be evident on Web resources, including commercial affiliations.

Audience

• Intended audiences (laypersons, fans, professionals, specialists, educators, etc.) should be evident.

Style and tone

• Style and tone should be appropriate to the topic.
• Web resources should meet the same criteria for grammar, spelling, and documentation that print resources meet.
• Sites should be user-friendly and in good taste to be appropriate for research papers.

Quality of content

• Content should be timely, documented, verifiable, and accurate.
• Limitations should be pointed out.
• Information should be detailed enough to be appropriate to the research paper topic.
• Information should be relevant to the topic.

Organization of information

• Resources should be well organized, easy to follow and use, with reliable links.

Publisher, source, host

• Publishers, hosts, and sources provide some of the authority associated with any Web resource.
• They should be evident to the user and appropriate to the topic.

Stability of information

• Web sites and the information on them should be relatively stable over time, as should basic information.
• Changes in information (or updates) should be indicated.