However, determining the authority for Web sites is not always easy. There should be biographical information about the author, along with a way to contact him or her, either through e-mail, a phone number, or an address. The body that sponsors the site should also be clearly indicated either in the header or footer with a link to that organization's home page. The relationship between the sponsor of the site and the author should also be clear. If the author or sponsoring organization is difficult to determine, the quality of the information should be questioned.
Objectivity seems to be much more of a problem on the Web than in traditional print sources.
If the sponsoring organization is not well-known, one should look in a secondary source to find information about the institution. Currency is usually touted as one of the Web's strengths. However, not all Web pages have dates, so it is sometimes difficult to determine the currency of the information. If a date is included, it could be the date the page was originally written, the last update, or the date when it was made available on the Web. A good information source will always put a date, usually at the bottom, and clearly define what the date indicates.