Sociology

When evaluating either print or online resources for a research assignment or paper, ask the following questions from the evaluation criteria checklist below:

Evaluation Criteria Checklist

Search for contact information such as a name, e-mail address, or institution.

Search for the author's credentials:

• Is the author affiliated with a university, organization, institution, or association? 
• Search for the author's name in a library database such as Academic Search Complete or WorldCat to find out about whether or not the author has other publications.
• Search the author's name on Google. Is he or she listed as author of other Web publications? Is there an organization, publisher, or corporate author listed? Who is producing or sponsoring the site? A university? A government agency? An organization? Is the organization profit or nonprofit? Do you see a university or corporate logo? Is the site someone's personal Web page?

For a Web site, look at the site's address. Is the top-level domain .edu, .gov, or .org? These domains indicate that the source is an educational, government, or non-profit institution and may indicate higher reliability, but this does not automatically make it an authoritative or reliable source.

• If you cannot tell anything about the producer of the site from the page you are on, delete part of the Web address after the main address or first forward slash (/). This will take you to the home page of the site. From there you may be able to find out who is sponsoring it.
• Many Web sources do not give the identity or credentials of the author or producer. Sources that do not give this information have questionable reliability.

Check a biographical source:

• There will be many times during your years in college and later in life that you will need to find biographical information about a person. The library has dozens of biographical sources in the reference area. A researcher often doesn't know which one will contain information on the person of interest. Some basic sources to try are the following:
• Articles: Find articles in databases such as: Literature Resource Center or Academic Search Complete.
• Encyclopedia articles: Look in general or specialized encyclopedias for a brief summary of an author's life. Use the library catalog to find both print and online encyclopedias.
• Books: Do a subject search in the library catalog to find print and online books that detail a person's life.

Read a critical review:

• Book Reviews: A review is a critical evaluation which will often provide information about the author. By reading reviews, you can determine the quality of a book or movie.Books are reviewed in newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals. Ordinarily a book will be reviewed within a year after it is published, although it may be reviewed later.  The following are two sources for finding book reviews:
  • Academic Search Complete
  •  Literature Resource Center

The web contains a wealth of information published by government departments, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, commercial enterprises and private individuals all over the world. Since there are no standards for information quality on the web, not everything you find will be accurate or appropriate to use as research.

.com sites

Commercial or for-profit company websites - URL addresses are identified by the .com domain suffix:

• Example: Starbucks https://www.starbucks.com

.edu sites

College and university websites - URL addresses are identified by the .edu domain suffix:

• Example: Harvard University https://www.harvard.edu
• Excludes student or faculty pages hosted by the educational institution. 

.gov sites

Government agency and department websites - URL addresses are identified by the .gov domain suffix:

• Example: National Institutes of Health https://www.nih.gov

.org sites

Professional society and non-profit organization websites - URL addresses are identified by the .org domain suffix:

• Example of a professional society: American Psychological Association https://www.apa.org
• Example of a non-profit organization: American Red Cross https://www.redcross.org

What Does .org Mean?

• The .org domain was originally intended for non-profit organizations and professional associations.
• Today, anyone can purchase a .org domain, so not all .org sites are legitimate or unbiased.
• Always evaluate who is behind the website and what their purpose is.

Legitimate .org Websites

Many trusted professional and non-profit organizations use the .org domain. These sites often provide reliable, research-based information.

Examples:

• American Psychological Association (APA) – https://www.apa.org 
• American Red Cross – https://www.redcross.org

These are recognized organizations that represent their disciplines and are considered authoritative sources.

Advocacy and Bias on .org Sites

Not all .org websites are neutral. Many represent organizations that promote specific causes or viewpoints. These sites can still be valuable, but it’s important to recognize their advocacy role and potential bias.

Examples:

• Planned Parenthood – https://www.plannedparenthood.org 
• National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) – https://norml.org 
• National Rifle Association (NRA) – https://www.nra.org

Use these sites to understand particular perspectives, but cross-check information with neutral or scholarly sources.

Misleading or Unreliable .org Websites

Some .org websites look professional but are not legitimate or trustworthy. Be cautious of sites that hide their affiliations or promote biased or false information.

Examples:

Wikipedia – https://www.wikipedia.org 

• Helpful for background reading but can be edited by anyone.

• Not always reliable for academic research.

Martin Luther King website (run by Stormfront) - http://martinlutherking.org 

• Appears respectful but is actually operated by a white nationalist organization.

• Presents highly biased and misleading content.

Institute for Historical Review (IHR) – http://www.ihr.org

• Claims to publish historical research but promotes Holocaust denial.

• Authors often lack credible academic qualifications.

Bullying Statistics – http://www.bullyingstatistics.org

• Looks official but lacks clear authorship and verifiable data sources.

If it is not obvious the information comes from an authoritative group, look for links such as About Us, Who We Are or Our Mission to evaluate the source.