15 Attributes of a reliable Website:
- Authorship: Look for the organization or author who is responsible for the page. Site the sources of their qualifications. Creator and Publisher should be the same.Credentials: Look at the author's qualifications to ensure that the materials are scholarly.
- Research author's name on Yahoo or Google search engines.
- Credibility: Check the credibility of the author's resources. Contact information.Site uses accurate grammar.
- The article should have footnote documentation.
- Resources should provide information on copyright or permission to produce the page.
- Website Reliability: The website should have links that give background information about the website. Registration prompt - allows particular people on their sites (educator)
- The URL should indicate the organization that's responsible for the information.
- Compare current web page to other web pages link to the topic. ( 404, 405 error indicates unreliability)
- Domain- e.g. .com , .edu, .gov, .net- reliable institution, networks
- Determine the purpose for which the web was created.
- Archiving- The page should be listed in one or more reputable directories or pages and reflected in a positive way.
- The information on the web page should be appropriate to the research topic.
- Structure of website/ format.
- Currency: Check for the date or page last updated at the bottom of the web page. The page must be current. This determines reliability. Relevant information for certain time.
- Monitor the tone of the web page to determine its point of view.