A. Author- Who wrote the page? Can you tell? Is it easy to see if they are affiliated with a larger institution? Does this make him/her qualified to write on the subject? Is there contact information for the author (e-mail as well as regular mailing address)?
B. Publisher- In the print world, the publisher's name can be an indication of the quality of the information provided. Most people would be more willing to believe information in a book published by a university press than information found in a supermarket tabloid. In the Web world, the web server is the equivalent to a publisher. The web server's domain can help in assessing the reliability of the information. Here are a few of them: .edu an educational or research institution .com a commercial enterprise, including companies, newspapers, commercial Internet Service Providers .gov a governmental body .mil a military body .org a not-for-profit organization
C. Intended Audience - Is it apparent who the page was created for? For students? For scientists? For consumers? How might this affect the level and/or reliability of the information?
D. Background Sources- Does the author cite any other material? Do they give full references for it? Would you have any way of checking to see if the things that they cite are indeed real articles or books?
E. Currency - When was this page put up on the Web? Has it been updated since? Is the information current enough for your needs on this topic?
F. Accuracy - Are there any grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors? If there are, there may be problems with the dependability of the content of the page as well.
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