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Website Validation Form

(This form may be printed out and used to evaluate the authority of a research web site)

AUTHORITY YES NO
1. Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of this page?    
2. Is there a link to a page describing the purpose of the sponsoring
organization?		    
3. Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the page's sponsor?
(Phone number or postal address to contact for more information?)		    
4. Are the author's qualifications for writing on this topic clearly stated?    
5. If the material is protected by copyright, is the name of the copyright
holder given?		    
ACCURACY YES NO
1.Are the sources for any factual information clearly listed so they can be
verified in another source?		    
2. Is the information free of grammatical, spelling and other typographical
errors		    
3. If there are charts and/or graphs containing statistical data, are they clearly
labeled and easy to read?		    
OBJECTIVITY YES NO
1. Is the purpose of the document clearly stated?
(To inform/explain; to persuade/advocate a position; to sell)		    
2. Does the document reflect a particular bias in viewpoint?    
3. Does the author distinguish fact from opinions?    
4. Are sources or viewpoints that you might expect to be present clearly
expressed?		    
5. If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly differentiated from the
informational content?		    
CURRENCY YES NO
1. Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was written?    
2. Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was last updated?    
3. Are there any other indications that the material is kept current?    
4. If material is presented in graphs or charts, is it clearly stated when the
data was gathered?		    
COVERAGE YES NO
1. Is there an indication that the page has been completed, and is not still
under construction?		    
2. If there is a print equivalent to the Web page, is there a clear indication of
whether the entire work is available on the Web, or only parts of it?		    
3. If the material is from a work which is out of copyright (as is the case of a
dictionary or thesaurus) has there been an effort to update the material to
make it more current?		    

Note: This checklist is adapted from Web Wisdom: "How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web", copyright Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate 1996-1999.