This page presents some issues that students and others should consider when using information obtained from the Internet's World Wide Web. Given the growing glut of information on the Web and elsewhere, the challenge for students, educators, researchers, and others is to determine the reliability and value of the information obtained, and whether or not it can be used with confidence. Remember, anyone can publish on the Web with relatively little effort. There are as yet no standards or fact editors, so evaluating information reliability is essential in order to avoid drawing bad conclusions from bad information. This page was written to provide some guidelines for evaluating reliability or source accuracy.
Information is published on the Internet by various entities.
These include government agencies, universities, businesses, non-profit organizations, and individuals. Authors create the content of Web pages and they may or may not also be the publisher. A source should be evaluated before information is collected from a site. Check credentials to ensure that authors or publishers have the required expertise, education, training, or objectivity to provide reliable information. A publisher or author usually can be identified by their site's domain name.