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Certified Nursing Assistant : Using Credible Websites

Criteria for Evaluating Websites

The Web offers a wealth of information, but not all of it is equally accurate or reliable. Evaluate and cite your sources carefully. Materials found on the open web require close evaluation to determine credibility, reliability and authenticity.

Concepts and questions to consider:

Authority

  • Is the author of the page clearly identified? What are his or her credentials for writing on this topic?
  • Is the author affiliated with an organization? What is the reputation of that organization?
  • Is there a link back to the organization's page or some other way to contact the organization and/or verify its credibility? (address, phone number, e-mail address?)
  • Who publishes and/or is responsible for the website itself? Who has registered the URL?

Currency

  • Is it clear when the information was published?
  • When was it last updated?
  • Is this the most recent version?
  • Are there any indications that an attempt is made to keep the pages current?
  • If there are links to other Web pages, are they current?

Objectivity

  • Are the purpose and objectives of the page clear?
  • Is it geared to a particular audience or level of expertise?
  • Is the primary purpose to provide information? to sell a product? to make a political point? to have fun? to parody a person or organization or idea?
  • Is it a comprehensive resource or does it focus on a narrow range of information? Is it clear about this focus?
  • Does the page display a particular bias or perspective? Is it clear and forthcoming about its view of the subject? Does it use inflammatory or provocative language?
  • If the page contains advertising, are the ads clearly distinguishable from the content?

Accuracy

  • Is the source of any factual information clearly stated?
  • Are the source, scope and date of any statistics clearly labeled?
  • Can factual information be verified through footnotes or bibliographies to other credible sources?
  • Has the site been evaluated by one of the Web subject indexes, a rating service or a library? If so, can you tell what criteria they used?
  • Did you find this source using an internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo? They neither select the best pages nor filter out questionable ones, so you need to evaluate the choices carefully. They also may not always have the most recent version of the page.
  • Based on what you already know about the subject (or have checked from other sources), does this information seem credible?
  • Are there obvious typos or misspelled words or grammatical errors?

The "Good" vs the "Not so Good"

There's no doubt that Google contains a wealth of helpful information.  Beware! Anyone can publish a website that may contain unreliable, often false, information.  It's best when conducting scholarly research for a class assigment to look for websites that have the .edu and .gov domains.

DOMAINS THAT ARE CREDIBLE!                                                             

.EDU (EDUCATION = COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES)

.GOV (GOVERNMENT  = AGENCIES OF THE US GOVERNMENT)

.MIL (MILITARY)

 

DOMAINS THAT SOMETIMES ARE CREDIBLE (BE CRITICAL!)

.ORG (ORGANIZATION)

 

DOMAINS THAT ARE NOT CREDIBLE!

.COM (COMMERCIAL = ANYONE CAN PUBLISH A .COM)!

.NET (NETWORK)

Evaluating Health Websites

The links below will help you determine how to critically evaluate medical information online.

Test your Skills

Can you tell which website is reputable? Use the information on this page to determine which website is reputable and which one is not.

http://www.medical-library.net/

http://www.nih.gov/

Professor Wikipedia

People use Wikipedia as a resource for information on various topics.  Please keep in mind that anyone can edit and contribute to a Wikipedia article.  Since anyone can edit an article, this means the information maycontain errors and be inaccurate.  Use Wikipedia as a jumping off point for further research about a topic.  Never cite Wikipedia as a source for a paper or project! Your instructor will not accept this site as a reliable source.

 

The following video is a humorous take on the problem with using Wikipedia. Enjoy!

What are Credible Websites?