Evaluating Sources

Unlike traditional publications (books, magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals), anyone can publish on the web. Because websites are seldom subject to the same editorial review process as traditional sources, evaluating them can be more challenging. It requires more work on your part to determine whether the person or organization responsible for the information is a reliable source. Follow the tips below as well as the SIFT Method to ensure you only use trusted websites.

DOMAIN SUFFIXES

在评估网站时，要考虑网站的域名后缀. 域名后缀可以帮助你确定网站的目的或受众.

.com = commercial
A company owns the site. A .com site can be a company's homepage or it can be a web space a company has sold to someone. Commercial sites are often difficult to evaluate because companies may include educational information on portions of their sites. For example, the Duracell site contains information about battery sustainability and disposal. 一些商业网站可能想说服你购买它销售的产品. You must decide on a case-by-case basis whether a particular site's information outweighs its commercial / advertising agenda.

.org = organization
If you use an organization's site, think about the organization's agenda and how it's likely to influence the way they present information.

.edu = educational
A .edu site is from a college or university, such as Metropolitan Community College’s site: o3vmlix.web-sitemap.clinicallaboratorylimassol.com. Usually, 这意味着该网站有很好的信息, 但有时学院和大学会给学生提供网络空间. Remember that the students may or may not check their facts when they put information up on the web.

.gov = government
这些网站是由美国政府(联邦)的某些部门制作的, state, county, or city government).

.mil = military
这些网站是由美国军队的分支机构制作的, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, etc.).

.net = network provider
This means that the site has something to do with providing internet-related service. Local internet service providers will have .Net作为其地址的一部分，尽管它们也可能是 .com.

CLICK RESTRAINT

Because some search engines use a strategy called search engine optimization (SEO) to promote certain websites, 搜索的第一个结果可能不是最好的. 通过扫描结果以查找可信来源来练习单击限制.

视频:如何在网上找到更好的信息:点击约束 (Stanford History Education Group)

Domain suffixes adapted from 美国的通用域名后缀 由华盛顿大学图书馆根据a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

在对网站进行事实核查时，请遵循以下四个步骤.

STOP
问问自己，你是否了解并信任网站或信息来源. 如果你不知道，请调查资料来源以了解更多信息.

INVESTIGATE the source
If you’re not familiar with a website, 花一分钟找出负责此事的人或组织. What is their reputation? 在网上或图书馆的数据库中搜索，了解别人是怎么说的. 不要依赖网站本身告诉你的信息.

FIND trusted coverage
If you can’t determine a source’s reliability and you only care about a claim it makes, find a better source. 寻找已知的可靠来源，以验证该说法的准确性.

将声明、引用和媒体追溯回原始上下文
你在网上找到的很多东西都不是原创报道或研究. Instead, it reports what others have said. Sometimes the information has been altered or taken out of context so much it presents a radically wrong version of an event or a piece of research, either intentionally or by mistake. To make sure you have an accurate version, trace the information back to the original source or find a secondary source that went through the process of verifying it.

视频:用横向阅读从在线小说中分类事实 (Stanford History Education Group)

SIFT Method from Check, Please! Starter Course by Michael Caulfield, licensed under a CCY BY 4.0 license.

What about Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia and its articles provide a huge amount of information, but it is important to be aware that:

• anyone can write or edit a Wikipedia article (so there is no guarantee the information is accurate).
• all authors are anonymous (so you cannot verify the credibility of the article based on the author’s background).
• Wikipedia should not be cited in a college research paper and information taken from it should always be verified from a second, reliable source.

Wikipedia itself states: “Wikipedia is not considered to be a reliable source as not everything in Wikipedia is accurate, comprehensive, or unbiased.” See Researching with Wikipedia for more information.

Why Use Wikipedia?

如果使用得当，维基百科上的信息会很有用. 维基百科的文章对以下方面特别有用:

• 提供一个主题的一些基本背景信息(以便快速获得一些信息), introductory information, not critical facts for academic research).
• get links to more verifiable and authoritative sources (the references listed in Wikipedia articles can lead you to good quality, credible data).
• find information on people, publications and organizations that can help you evaluate information from other sources (e.g. if you find information from a magazine or an organization you are unfamiliar with, Wikipedia can give you a brief description of the magazine or organization that can help you decide if the information is credible).

Steps to Evaluate Wikipedia Articles

Wikipedia has special policies and organizational methods that can be used to help you evaluate its articles. 按照以下具体建议的步骤来评估维基百科的文章.

寻找模板消息或特色文章状态
用户可以在文章上留言指出引用的问题, style, Wikipedia policies (e.g. "Neutral Point of View", "Verifiability" and more). 有关不同消息的示例，请参阅Wikipedia的 Template Index. 此外，文章可以获得状态 "featured article” (look for a star on the top right side), 这表明他们达到了维基百科的卓越标准.

文章的断言和事实是否有引用?
注意整篇文章的超链接脚注. 重要的论断被引用了吗?这些论断的来源是什么? 如果来源是可用的，检查它们是否被正确引用. 有些来源会被认为比其他来源更权威, but the type of sources chosen, as well as the quantity available, will depend upon the article. 流行文化中的话题，比如角色扮演游戏 Elden Ring, would have very different sources than an article on an academic topic, such as a U.S. President.

Check the edit history of the article
维基百科的每一篇文章都有编辑历史. 在文章的顶部寻找标签“查看历史”. The quantity of edits over a period of time will be an indication of how much effort has been put into constructing the article. Likewise, you can choose to look at the article from any point of view in its edit history and view a note about what changes were made. This can be a good way to determine whether an article may have vandalized before you decided to use it.

Check out the User’s page
Because all Wikipedia authors are anonymous, 评估作者的偏见或经验即使不是不可能，也是很困难的. 编辑历史记录为对文章的每次编辑提供一个用户名, 如果用户没有创建帐户，则输入IP地址. Click the username to view the user’s page, 它列出了用户的贡献以及他们的个人信息. 请记住，你不能总是相信虚拟身份. If only an IP address is provided, note that with IP sniffing some addresses can be traced back to their owning organization. 所以编辑是在微软，中情局等匿名进行的. do tell us something about the contributor.

When viewing the edit history of an article, look for a diversity of contributors
大多数文章将受益于贡献者的多样性. 一般来说，有许多不同的方法来处理一个问题. Information gathered from multiple sources is usually more well-rounded and informed. 想想一篇有两个来源的研究论文，而不是有20个来源的研究论文. 你认为哪一份报纸会更平衡?

Read the Talk page
Click on the “Talk” tab at the top of the page to read a discussion about possible additions and improvements to the article as well as any challenges and ongoing debates among its contributors.

VIDEO: Wikipedia Beneath the Surface (The University of Kansas Libraries)

本页内容经许可改编自 Evaluating Wikipedia Articles, Skyline College Library.