Evaluating websites: Home

Before believing the information given on a web site, or quoting it in your essay or project, think about the following points.  You can use the C.R.A.A.P. mnemonic to help you remember what to think about!

Currency

• Can you tell how up-to-date it is?
• Is it regularly updated?
• You don't want to quote out-of-date information
• Do all the links work?

Relevance

• Is the information of the right level to be quoted in your project? Who is the intended audience?  If it is aimed at the general public or school children it might not be right for your assignment!
• Does the information answer the topic you are researching?

Authority

• Who is responsible for the page/site?
• Is it a reliable organisation (eg a well known university) or a subject expert?
• Can you trust them?

Accuracy

• Is the information correct?
• Do you know where the information has come from?
• Is the grammar and spelling correct?
• Has it been reviewed?

Purpose

• Why was the website written?
• Is the information fact or opinion?
• Is it complete, or are they just giving one point of view?
• Do they have their own agenda eg political organisations?

To find websites and other resources to use for an essay, project or seminar take a look at your subject guide. Your Academic Liaison Librarian will have selected the most important and reliable sources to use.

You can quickly evaluate the authority of a website by looking at the URL of a website. This can help you find out who or what has created the website, and possibly their intent. The main part that you want is what is called the top level domain name, which is normally the last segment of a domain name which appears after the dot. 

For example: www.reading.ac.uk 

The top level domain name is highlighted in bold. 

Below are some common examples of domain names which you may come across. Note that even if the website comes from an official organisation, you will still need to verify the information provided. 

An internet search can retrieve a wide range of different publication types. It is important that you know how to recognise these to help you judge their reliability and suitability for use in your assignments, and to know how to reference them. 

Watch this short video from our Academic Liaison Team which will help you become a digital detective and use clues to help you recognise different sources in your results.

You can find many different types of information on the Internet. Check that the item you are referencing isn't a journal article, book chapter, or another type of publication which you should be citing in a different way.

Elements to include:

1. Author (person or company that created the webpage)
2. Year of publication or last update (in round brackets). Scroll to the bottom of the page but if there is no date put (no date)
3. Page title (in italics)
4. Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Examples:

Webpage created by a person

Reference list: Bologna, C. (2018) What happens to your mind and body when you feel homesick? Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-happens-mindbody-homesick_us_5b201ebde4b09d7a3d77eee1 (Accessed: 24 June 2021).

In-text citation: (Bologna, 2018)

Webpage created by an organisation

Reference list: World Health Organization (2020) Salt reduction. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/salt-reduction (Accessed: 24 June 2021).

In-text citation: (World Health Organization, 2020)

Further guidance on referencing websites

Have a look at this Study Advice video tutorial (note that the format of the examples may not match the guidance given above):