Research on critical evaluation of internet information?
Is anyone aware of recent research on criteria to evaluate online information, especially if aimed at resarchers and students? For many years, libraries have been providing guides to evaluating information on the Internet that asks students to look at the URL (is it .com or .gov? is it a personal or organiation site?), the published date, the existance of an author byline etc as critiera to evalute online information. These criteria are perhaps becoming a little too simplistic now to really evaluate a site and in many cases can be misleading – especially with the rise of academic blogging, online datasets, preprint archives, association sites etc which fall out of these boxes. I'm having difficulty finding critiera that goes beyond looking at the URL, authorship and page design and which looks at appraising all types of information whether printed or online, and evaluating the quality of peer review, accuracy of datasets and statistics and so on. Is anyone aware of work in defining evaluation criteria that can be used by researchers, academics and students? I am aware of some studies of critiera for consumer health sites but I'm more interested in appraisal for the purposes of citing information in research or student papers. thanks, Fiona Bradley Information Services Librarian University of Technology, Sydney
Not sure if this gets at "criteria" but the chapters in this book may cite others that get you where you want to go. They are all free downloads. Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/dmal/-/2 I believe that there are a number of "web credibility" projects out there as well, but it sounds like you are aware of them. Dan Dan Perkel PhD Candidate, School of Information University of California, Berkeley dperkel@ischool.berkeley.edu http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~dperkel http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu On Sep 11, 2008, at 9:04 PM, Fiona Bradley wrote:
Is anyone aware of recent research on criteria to evaluate online information, especially if aimed at resarchers and students?
For many years, libraries have been providing guides to evaluating information on the Internet that asks students to look at the URL (is it .com or .gov? is it a personal or organiation site?), the published date, the existance of an author byline etc as critiera to evalute online information. These criteria are perhaps becoming a little too simplistic now to really evaluate a site and in many cases can be misleading – especially with the rise of academic blogging, online datasets, preprint archives, association sites etc which fall out of these boxes.
I'm having difficulty finding critiera that goes beyond looking at the URL, authorship and page design and which looks at appraising all types of information whether printed or online, and evaluating the quality of peer review, accuracy of datasets and statistics and so on. Is anyone aware of work in defining evaluation criteria that can be used by researchers, academics and students? I am aware of some studies of critiera for consumer health sites but I'm more interested in appraisal for the purposes of citing information in research or student papers.
thanks, Fiona Bradley
Information Services Librarian University of Technology, Sydney _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http:// listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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I've done some work on how flawed the Internet-literacy strategy of teaching people to "evaluate the URL" is when it comes to what I refer to as cloaked sites, that is, sites that are intended to disguise a particular political agenda. For example, the site at the URL "martinlutherking.org" appears to be tribute site, but is in fact published by white supremacists. The young people I interviewed for my research (ages 15-19) were often fooled by the site and the strategy of "evaluating the URL" didn't help them. In fact, it actually made it more difficult to figure out that the site was cloaked. So, in terms of criteria, I argue that always being able to identify authorship of a website is crucial (if there's not an "about us/me" link, be suspicious). And, of course, critical thinking informed by an awareness the political landscape (especially around racism) is important as well. I also have a piece in the MacArthur series that Dan mentioned, (mine's in the Race and Ethnicity volume). And, I also have a forthcoming book, *Cyber Racism* (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). Hope this helps, ~ Jessie Jessie Daniels, PhD Associate Professor, Sociology Mercy College New York, NY -- http://www.jessiedanielsphd.com http://www.racismreview.com http://www.homelessyouthservices.org On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 2:13 AM, Dan Perkel <dperkel@ischool.berkeley.edu>wrote:
Not sure if this gets at "criteria" but the chapters in this book may cite others that get you where you want to go. They are all free downloads.
Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/dmal/-/2
I believe that there are a number of "web credibility" projects out there as well, but it sounds like you are aware of them.
Dan
Dan Perkel PhD Candidate, School of Information University of California, Berkeley dperkel@ischool.berkeley.edu http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~dperkel<http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/%7Edperkel> http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu
On Sep 11, 2008, at 9:04 PM, Fiona Bradley wrote:
Is anyone aware of recent research on criteria to evaluate online
information, especially if aimed at resarchers and students?
For many years, libraries have been providing guides to evaluating information on the Internet that asks students to look at the URL (is it .com or .gov? is it a personal or organiation site?), the published date, the existance of an author byline etc as critiera to evalute online information. These criteria are perhaps becoming a little too simplistic now to really evaluate a site and in many cases can be misleading – especially with the rise of academic blogging, online datasets, preprint archives, association sites etc which fall out of these boxes.
I'm having difficulty finding critiera that goes beyond looking at the URL, authorship and page design and which looks at appraising all types of information whether printed or online, and evaluating the quality of peer review, accuracy of datasets and statistics and so on. Is anyone aware of work in defining evaluation criteria that can be used by researchers, academics and students? I am aware of some studies of critiera for consumer health sites but I'm more interested in appraisal for the purposes of citing information in research or student papers.
thanks, Fiona Bradley
Information Services Librarian University of Technology, Sydney _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http:// listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Hi, This is precisely the subject of my PhD: How to asses the quality of information and select online sources. I have a special focus on corporate information specialists but I think it applies to your academic object. To investigate this subject, I've done a two-step fieldwork research. First consist in submitting a list of information quality criteria taken from a book written in 2001. Each criteria had to be rated on its level of importance when applied to 5 specific formats (blogs, wikis, podcasts, file sharing and social network) compared to "classic online sources". For information quality assessement, I have noriced 2 approach. The academic one, that is very broad, concpetual, theorethical, etc. You deal with very interesting things such as authority, timeliness, acuracy, etc... But this is not very useful when applied to a real situtaion. Here, Professional literature provides you with a great help. All thos general criteria are generally declined in checklists of precise questions. For exemple, assessing update is not easy as such but the checklist ask you: is there an expicit date of the information ? is the information up-to-date? is there statement of policy regarding frequency of update? etc. Two references have to be suggested in my opinion: Alexander, J. E. (1999). Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web (p. 156). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cooke, A. (2001). A Guide to Finding Quality Information on the Internet: Selection and Evaluation Strategies (2 éd., p. 216). London: Library Association Pub. This is research is detailled in Depauw, J. (2007). Dealing with user generated content: Adjusting Information managers' source selection and information quality assessment. Dans Proceedings of The Good, the Bad and the Unexcpected. Moscow: Cost 298. Results are to be presented at IR9.0 - at doctoral colloquium and on Saturday. Paper #306 Depauw, J. (2008). Information quality assessment and source selection on the internet for competitive intelligence: fieldwork research on 53 Belgian executives. Dans Proceeding of Internet Research 9.0: Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place. IT University of Copenhagen: Association of Internet Researchers. The second step of the fieldwork research consists in 15 qualitative interview with respondents of the first step. During this interview, I asked a question that might interest you as I wondered if there are criteria of information quality that are not covered in the list of the study. I don't remember everything I have to say. But I cans share this asap. My dissertation is due to May 2009. I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me off-list if you want more details. I wish you all a nice WE guys, ____________ Jeremy Depauw PhD Student Département des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication (S.I.C.) Université Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B.) Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50/123 Web: http://dev.ulb.ac.be/philo/jdepauw/
Excellent question and rich area for necessary research. Let me know what if any of the below helps. Look at http://credibility.stanford.edu/ to see just one example of the need for trans/multi/interdisciplinary effort to tackle this huge issue. Journalists and legal scholars for obvious reasons in the U.S. have taken an interest in "cognitive authority" , credibility, trustworthiness, expertise, etc. Therefore the search strategy keywords as well as the research outlets/journals/databases for this area are shifting. Look in new electronic journals for research publications in this topic. A handful of think tanks in US are now and have traditionally dealt with these issues although the descriptors or subject headings may be different. Authors not publishers often now give the descriptors, not always controlled by vocabulary of the database provider. We are now in the full-text world so we have to find and use the right "buzzwords" although authority, authorship, credibility, trustworthiness are still standards in LIS world A few years ago, Anne C. Weller compiled a monumental bibliography on peer-review mostly in the sci-tech-med world; the book could provide many leads re: the other face of the problem of fraudulence, falsification, and plagiarism
From my corner of the world, as a newly appointed LIS faculty member assessing the big picture for the sake of my students, I see librarians having to bridge the too-real digital divide; integration of technologies and applications; interfaces, interoperability, budget magic to stretch dollars, and focus on supporting the fundamental basics of general public information literacy (another keyword). In library world, important related research areas under: "information seeking behavior" as well as "usability" and "accessibility"
-- Maria E. Gonzalez, PhD gonzalez@ischool.utexas.edu Quoting Fiona Bradley <blisspix@gmail.com>: Is anyone aware of recent research on criteria to evaluate online information, especially if aimed at resarchers and students? For many years, libraries have been providing guides to evaluating information on the Internet that asks students to look at the URL (is it .com or .gov? is it a personal or organiation site?), the published date, the existance of an author byline etc as critiera to evalute online information. These criteria are perhaps becoming a little too simplistic now to really evaluate a site and in many cases can be misleading especially with the rise of academic blogging, online datasets, preprint archives, association sites etc which fall out of these boxes. I'm having difficulty finding critiera that goes beyond looking at the URL, authorship and page design and which looks at appraising all types of information whether printed or online, and evaluating the quality of peer review, accuracy of datasets and statistics and so on. Is anyone aware of work in defining evaluation criteria that can be used by researchers, academics and students? I am aware of some studies of critiera for consumer health sites but I'm more interested in appraisal for the purposes of citing information in research or student papers. thanks, Fiona Bradley Information Services Librarian University of Technology, Sydney _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Many thanks to all those who contacted me on list and off about this question. I now have some excellent starting points for beginning research on this topic from several different angles, and I will be sure to post back with any significant findings. regards, Fiona 2008/9/12 Fiona Bradley <blisspix@gmail.com>:
Is anyone aware of recent research on criteria to evaluate online information, especially if aimed at resarchers and students?
For many years, libraries have been providing guides to evaluating information on the Internet that asks students to look at the URL (is it .com or .gov? is it a personal or organiation site?), the published date, the existance of an author byline etc as critiera to evalute online information. These criteria are perhaps becoming a little too simplistic now to really evaluate a site and in many cases can be misleading – especially with the rise of academic blogging, online datasets, preprint archives, association sites etc which fall out of these boxes.
I'm having difficulty finding critiera that goes beyond looking at the URL, authorship and page design and which looks at appraising all types of information whether printed or online, and evaluating the quality of peer review, accuracy of datasets and statistics and so on. Is anyone aware of work in defining evaluation criteria that can be used by researchers, academics and students? I am aware of some studies of critiera for consumer health sites but I'm more interested in appraisal for the purposes of citing information in research or student papers.
thanks, Fiona Bradley
Information Services Librarian University of Technology, Sydney
participants (5)
-
Dan Perkel -
Fiona Bradley -
Jeremy Depauw -
Jessie Daniels -
Maria E.Gonzalez