How to Choose the Best Online Resources for Research Papers

By Shannon Kietzman, Contributing Writer

Updated: 11/19/2008

Ahhh…the Internet! The Internet is a wonderful resource when it comes to gathering information for a college research paper. At the same time, the Internet is full of useless and erroneous information that can quickly lead to a failing grade if you use it in your paper. Therefore, if you are going to turn to the Internet to help you write a university level paper, you want to be certain you are obtaining information from a reliable source. By asking these simple questions, you will be more likely to select a reliable source that will make your professor very pleased with the results.

Who is the Author?

The first thing you need to consider when evaluating a website is who wrote the content. The information you use for your research paper needs to be written by someone that is an authority in the field. This means that popular websites with user-generated content such as Wikipedia is not a good source of information.

When evaluating an author, check out his or her biography in order to determine if that person is a reliable source. If you found the website by clicking on a link from a website you trust, you may be somewhat certain the information is reliable. Still, if a biography is not posted on the site, you should contact the author in order to learn more about his or her background. That way, you can better determine if the person is an authority that you can trust.

Who is the Publisher?

When writing a college research paper, you also want to use web content that was published by a reputable publisher. You can sometimes determine if a publisher is reputable by just looking at the URL. For example, those that end with a ".gov" should be reliable because they were published by a government agency. The same is true of those with a ".edu" ending because the content is being published by an educational institution. Websites ending with a ".org" is often reliable, but it may present a bias that makes your information somewhat unreliable because these websites are published by organizations and they may have an agenda they are trying to push. Websites ending with ".com" can sometimes offer reliable information, but these sites are generally looking to make a sale and the information they contain should be verified before including it in a university level paper.

When Was the Content Published?

Although your source may be reliable, the information contained on the website may be outdated and no longer correct. It is rather easy for someone to create a website and to grow tired of updating it, which results in content that is several years old. While the content may have been valuable in 2003 when it was first published, the outdated material may no longer be reliable. So, before including information from a website in your college paper, be sure to determine when the content was last updated.

If the site doesn't indicate when it was updated, contact the author and ask for more information. You can also view the directory and see when the last modifications took place on the site. It is important to note that even old information could be useful in a college research paper, just be certain to update the information with data that is more current or to note in the paper when the data was reported.

The Internet is a great resource when it comes to writing college papers, just be certain to choose your sources carefully and you will be sure to get an A+ on the next paper you write!

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