What are the long term effects of using websites in your research? Will the websites you cite be available in 6 months? 1 year? 5 years?
Websites are impermanent -- websites and search engines appear and disappear.
Search engines differ. Conduct the same search in two different search engines. How much overlap is there in the first page of results?
Websites are constantly being updated.
Results can differ from day to day, sometimes hour to hour. Results can even be manipulated.
Lastly, not all the Web is being searched (not like a library catalog or research database).
While Google is an amazing search tool, it does not index the "deep web". Google Scholar attempts to provide "a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature". However it includes only a small group of what is available in the scholarly literature. It also does not have the limiting capabilities and discipline-specific terminology that a subject specific database (such as ERIC) provides. So while Google is a powerful search engine, it is not adequate for advanced research.
Don't Fall into a T.R.A.A.P. How do you make sense of available information and know what to trust? You'll find many types of resources as you research, such as: books, articles, newspapers, and websites. It is crucial that you evaluate all resources for relevance and credibility. Use the T.R.A.A.P. criteria to evaluate the credibility of all sources. The following list is not static or complete. Criteria will be more or less important depending on your situation and the resource. Timeliness: The timeliness of the information.
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Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs.
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Authority: The source of the information.
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Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the information.
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Purpose: The reason the information exists.
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Key: * indicates criteria is for Web sources only This is a modified version of a document created by Sarah Blakeslee at Meriam Library, CSU Chico. |