Google & Wikipedia
Thanks to search engines like Google and and to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, online research has never appeared to be easier. But like any public space, the Internet is populated with a wide variety of opinions, knowledge areas, and levels of expertise.
When you search the Internet, you are getting information from cranks, professors, professionals, people out to sell you something, and others who are pretending to be something they aren't — among many others. So you need to know how to evaluate your Internet search results.
Evaluation ABC's
Always evaluate your search results for Authority, Bias, and Currency.
Authority - who wrote the content? Is it someone you can trust? How do you know? Does this resource belong in the works cited, references, or bibliography of an academic paper? For instance : Wikipedia does not currently belong on a works cited, references page or bibliography of a college paper. When you read Wikipedia entries, you don't know whether or not the anonymous authors are true authorities on the topic.
Bias - why was this content posted? Does the author want to sell you a product or an opinion? Is there a religious or political slant? Collecting all kinds of opinions is fine. Just make sure you have identified the author's stance and recognize that generally the less biased the information, the better it is as a source of information. On the whole, academic literature is considered unbiased.
Currency - when was this information posted? Can you tell how often the website is updated? Is this the "last word" on the topic?
Other Online Tips
- Use Wikipedia for keywords and background information on your topic and to find more resources under References and External links.
- Weigh more heavily information provided by links ending in .edu and .gov than .com or .org. Information provided by educational and government links are better sources for academic research.
- Take a look at the links in the sidebar for more on searching for and evaluating information.
Back to Academic Research at NSCC
