Authority

• Currency
• Relevance/Coverage
• Authority
• Accuracy
• Purpose/Objectivity

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Ask yourself these questions to evaluate the authority of a Web source

• Can you tell who wrote it?

  Look for the author's name or the organization that sponsors the page. The creator's name is usually near the top or bottom of the page.

• Whose website is it? Is the owner reputable?
  
  Look at the domain (.com, .net, .edu, .gov, .mil, etc.) The domain should make sense, i.e., ".gov" for a government site, ".edu" for an educational institution.

  The publisher or creator of the site should match the URL. If the site says it is created by IBM, the URL should have www.ibm.com in it.

  Look for links to "About this site".

  Be wary of pages that have a ~ in the URL because they are usually personal sites. Also watch for pages on Internet service provider or community sites such as AOL, GeoCities, Angelfire.

• Does the author have credentials? Could the credentials be fake?

  Look for biographical information or institutional affiliations. You should be able to verify credentials.

 

Examples

Example of why you should examine the URL and the sponsoring organization:

http://www.whitehouse.org

http://www.geocities.com/beckermanlin/Ecofootprint.htm

Example of a more reputable website:

http://heinzhome.heinzctrinfo.net/index.shtml