Use this infographic from Depauw University or the list of questions below to help you evaluate whether or not to include a given website in your source list:
Authority
- Who is the author?
- What else has the author written?
- In which communities and contexts does the author have expertise?
Purpose
- Why was this source created?
- What (research) questions does it attempt to answer?
- Does it strive to be objective?
- Does it fill any other personal, professional, or societal needs?
- Who is the intended audience?
Publication
- Where was it published?
- Does the publication have a particular editorial position?
- Were there any apparent barriers to publication?
- Was it self-published?
- Were there outside editors or reviewers?
Relevance
- How is it relevant to your research?
- Does it analyze the primary sources that you're researching?
- Does it cover the authors or individuals that you're researching, but different primary texts?
- Can you apply the authors' frameworks of analysis to your own research?
- What is the scope of coverage?
- Is it a general overview or an in-depth analysis?
- Does the scope match your own information needs?
Currency
- When was the source first published?
- When was it last updated?
- What has changed in your field of study since the publication date?
- Are there any published reviews, responses or rebuttals?
Documentation
- Did they cite their sources?
- Who do they cite?
- Is the author affiliated with any of the authors they're citing?
- Are the cited authors part of a particular academic movement or school of thought?
- Look closely at the quotations and paraphrases from other sources:
- Did they appropriately represent the context of their cited sources?
- Are they cherry-picking facts to support their own arguments?
- Did they appropriately cite ideas that were not their own?
Adapted from the University of California Berkeley guide on evaluating sources: http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/evaluating-resources