Finding Websites

Anyone may put information on the Internet. Utilize the following tips when you search online and you will be more likely to come up with reliable websites for your research.

1. Use a scholarly or academic search directory. Professionals, who evaluate websites for content and substance, put together academic directories such as Librarians Index to the Internet or Infomine. Websites are evaluated before they are included in these directories, so the information you receive from these sites is more likely to be accurate.

2. Use Google Scholar. Google Scholar allows you “to search specifically for scholarly literature…from all broad areas of research.” This specific search within the popular Google search engine searches academic and organization websites. Websites are evaluated before they are included in these directories, so the information you receive from these sites is more likely to be accurate.

3. Analyze everything! When you use research from the web, you are the fact checker and editor. The old adage ‘don’t believe everything you read’ is more true than ever on the Internet. It is up to you, as a scholar, to verify the validity, timeliness, authorship, and integrity of what you find on the Internet.

4. Find out who is linking to the page you want to use. In Google type, link: URL of site. You can tell a lot about a page by who is linking to it. Is it mostly universities or organizations? Personal web pages? Something to think about: are people who are linking to it doing so because it is inaccurate?

5. Look for sites owned by organizations, educational facilities, or governement agencies. Government sites may be searched at FirstGov, and Google’s Government Search. You may also use Google’s advanced search to limit to .edu, or .gov sites. Some things to keep in mind:

• Educational institutions often host personal pages for students and faculty. Look for ~USERNAME in the URL to indicate a personal page.
• .net, .org, and .com sites may be purchased by anyone.

6. Look for an author. This may be an individual or an organization. Make certain there is someone willing to take responsibility for the information you are reading. Look for contact information, and an ‘About Us’ page to find out more information about what their purpose in providing the information is.

7. Look to see that the page is current. If in doubt check the links off the site. If many of them are broken, the page may not have been updated in several months.

6. Want to know more? Use the Internet Detective tutorial.

Most importantly, use information from a variety of sources! Double checking all of your facts and corroborating the information you have in several different resources is the best way to ensure the information you are using is solid, whether from a journal or a website!