Environmental Science and Studies: Evaluating Websites

Nothing! Just remember that anyone can post anything for any reason--it's not everyone's goal to share reliable, unbiased, up-to-date information. So, if your professor allows you to use websites for your research paper/project, make sure you critically evaluate them first.

Some of the popular search sites, such as Google or Wikipedia, are fine for exploring a topic you're not familiar with and finding citations to other sources you might be able to use.

Remember:  You may be able to find out about an article on the web, but you may not be able to get to the full-text.  Often, you'll get to full-text and you're asked to pay for it!  If this happens to you, please check the library's databases for the article.  If you don't find it there, you can still request it through Interlibrary Loan.

• SIFT: Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace

  SIFT is an evaluation strategy developed by digital literacy expert, Michael Caulfield (Washington State University Vancouver) to help you judge whether online content can be trusted for credible and reliable information. The SIFT strategy is quick, simple and can be applied to various kinds of online content: social media posts, memes, statistics, videos, images, news articles, scholarly articles, etc.

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  SIFT stands for:
  STOP
  INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE
  FIND BETTER COVERAGE
  TRACE CLAIMS, QUOTES, AND MEDIA BACK TO THEIR ORIGINAL SOURCE