Because there is no review process or regulation for the Internet, you will need to judge for yourself the quality of the material you find. Keep in mind these questions:

• “Who has created the site?”
• “What are their professional credentials?”
• “Who or what is the agency that sponsors or publishes the site?  Are they reliable?”
• “What is the domain name of the site?”
  • .gov sites are government sites and should be reliable
  • .org sites are organizational sites which may provide good information, but may also be biased
  • .edu sites are educational sites which may provide good information, but may also be college student sites
  • .com sites are commercial sites that may provide good information, but must be evaluated very thoroughly as many are designed for selling or entertainment, and many may be personal web sites

• “Is the material factual, to the best of your knowledge?”
• “Does the information appear to be valid and well-researched or is it unsupported by evidence?”
• “Are citations provided so that assertions and ‘facts’ that are presented can be verified?”

• “Is the purpose of the page to inform, explain, or persuade?”
• “Is the site designed to present factual information in an unbiased manner or do the creators of the site have a particular bias that is likely to color the information and interpretations?”
• "Which of the following indicators of objectivity does the site contain?"

• “Is the web site dated?  Is this date the date of creation or the date the material was last updated?  When was the page last updated?”
• “Are the links the page provides still current?”

• “What topics does the page cover?”
• “How in-depth is the coverage of topics?  Is the site intended to be comprehensive or selective?”
• “How does the site compare with other related sites or other related print resources?”