1. Take a skeptical approach, and verify everything before you use it in your work.
Anyone can publish anything on the Internet, cheaply and quickly. When evaluating information you find online, you must be skeptical at all times. The focus of your search should be finding credible information, rather than finding what you want to hear. And always verify information by confirming it with multiple sources. If you find a few unrelated, credible Web sites in agreement on an issue, your research may be done. The same cannot be said if you read something just once.
2. Use AND, OR, NOT to narrow your search. If you just type a few words or a phrase in a search box, you are not using all of the capabilities of the search engine to find the information you are looking for. On most search engines, you can narrow your search by using common words like AND, OR, NOT, or by using quote marks to show you are looking for an exact phrase.
Also, many search engines have advanced features or special usage tips that allow you to further refine your results. Here are a few examples of advanced search tips for common search engines:
Google search basics: More search help More from Google Bing Help About Ask.com: Advanced Search Tips 3. Try several search engines, not just one. Although major commercial search engines often return similar results, they work differently enough that you should use several search engines for every research project to help you uncover different resources.
Specialty search engines often search a specific group of web sites, or use different methods to search the web, specialty search engines will almost always generate better and more targeted search results in particular categories.
More on choosing a search engine:
findingDulcinea: Choosing a Search Engine
Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need 4. The best results aren’t always at the top. Dig deeper! The focus of your search should be finding the best information available, rather than picking the first site listed on a search results page. Some Web sites are very good at making their content rank high in search engines, for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of their content. Thus, results near the top of a search results page may not be useful, while the research gems that will make your report great may be buried 4-5 pages deep. So dig deep!
5. Who created the Web site? Why? When you evaluate a site to see if it is worth including in your research, consider who is making the information available. How is the site being funded? Is the site trying to sell you something? Does the site appear to have any social or political biases? Any of these factors can impact what information the site does and does not provide, and whether that information contains an unfair bias or a well-rounded overview of a topic.
The “About Us” section of a site is a good place to start looking for information about the publisher of the site but it shouldn’t be the end of your research. Type the name of the site into a search engine and scan several pages of search results to see what others say about the site.
For a more detailed look at evaluating Web sites, read on:
The Internet Detective offers “
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," covering online hoaxes, spoofs, scams and some common ways to spot them, along with a few real-world examples.
UC Berkeley Library offers a slightly more advanced guide to evaluating Web sites.
6. Who wrote the content or article? Many sites these days include content from a variety of authors. After you've evaluated who the publisher of the Web site is (see tip number 4), take a look at the specific author of the page you're reading. Especially on a site with user-created content, the quality of the content can vary a great deal. Ask yourself: who is the author of the specific article or Web page you are reviewing? What are the author’s credentials? Does the author link to credible third-party resources so you can verify the information elsewhere? Use a search engine to search the author's name, along with key subject words, to find other work the author has published or third-party opinions of his or her work.
7. Does the author back up statements with evidence, or is the article opinion? Articles that are strictly opinion can be useful to show one side of an argument, but often provide a skewed version of the facts surrounding a topic, and should not be used as your only source of information. Look for articles that cite other credible sources or studies, or that present many sides of a topic or argument.
8. Does the site have editors or experts who review the author’s work ? The content of most reputable publications and Web sites is authored by one person and reviewed or edited by at least one other person, who is trained to edit content. An editor can point out flaws or errors in an author’s work. If no one edits an author’s work, this may make it less trustworthy than content that is edited.
9. Are the ads clearly labeled, or do they blend in with information ? Many credible Web sites contain advertisements, but when the ads begin to be mixed in with the site content, you may find that the content is not trustworthy. Just as an infomercial on television is an advertisement disguised as information, some web sites create content that is only intended to sell a product.
10. When was the content created and last revised? Many Web pages indicate when they were created and last revised. Check the bottom of the page for a copyright date or look for a date near the byline of an article. Without a date, the current validity of the information is difficult to evaluate.
