Who is responsible for the site? Is there an author? Can you determine the producer's credentials, qualifications?
What type of site is it? Is the site sponsored by a group or organization? If so, does the group advocate a certain philosophy?
When was the site created or updated? Is there a date? Is it up-to-date?
Where can you find more information? Look for a name and email. Is the source of factual or attributed information well documented? Are the links reliable, and evaluated in any way?
Why was this site created? Is there any bias evident in the site? Is the site trying to sell a product?
What to look for: strategies
Strategies for checking who wrote the page and their qualifications:
Look for a name/email at the bottom, in "About us" or "Contact us". The author is usually not the webmaster. To learn more, try truncating a part at a time of the URL (stopping just before the slash) and pressing enter to see origins of the site.
Strategies for what the URL can tell you: .edu in the address = education site .org in the address = nonprofit organization site .gov in the address = government site .net in the address = network/utilities site .mil in the address = military site .com in the address = commercial site
The publisher in general is the agency or person operating the "server" computer from which the document is issued (like //www.ctt.bc.ca).
For somebody's personal page, the server may be a commercial ISP or other provider of web page hosting like aol.com - and look for a personal name (like barker) following a ~ symbol or the word "users" or "people".
Strategies for locating date of web page:
Look at the bottom usually. Also, you can right click and look under View / Page Info. Consider looking at other pages from this site by truncating back the URL. Be cautious about undated factual or statistical information.
Stategies for checking reliability of a source:
Look for awards or links to "Awards" page and check them out. Use Google to see who links to the page by preceding the URL by "link:" in the search box, like link:www.linnbenton.edu. How well is the site maintained? Are new sites or entries so designated? Note: In news stories in particular, being most recent does not guarantee that the information is more accurate.
Strategies for checking for bias of web page:
Look for links to "Sponsors", "About us", "Philososphy". Advertisers can also be sponsors so check that the points of view given show a range of opinion and are not bent to keep/attract advertisers. Try to think of alternative versions/viewpoints... are they evident or linked to? Look for your own bias. Are you being objective, fair?
Strategies for evaluating the clarity (organization, legibility) of the web page:
Consider if the information is well-written, clearly presented, logical. The graphics should add to the content not distract. There should be no mistakes in spelling or word usage.
