There are some basic criteria you should review when evaluating a website for its quality of information. The reason you want to carefully evaluate a website is that anyone can publish on the Web. Currently, there are no editors, fact-checkers or web standards that exit to ensure accuracy. The following websites provide questions that you should ask/answer about a website concerning Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage.

Web Research Evaluation Checklist (University of Louisville Libraries)

Evaluation Criteria (New Mexico State University Library)

Briefly, the criteria are:

• Accuracy -- You want to make sure the information is reliable, error-free and there is an editor or someone who verifies the information.
• Authority -- You want to know who is the author, whether the author is qualified or an expert, who's sponsoring the page and is the sponsor reputable. Hence if you look at the domain (.edu, .com, .gov, .org, .net), it gives you an idea of who is the publisher.
• Objectivity -- You want to check to see if there are any biases, whether the information is free of advertising or whether the page is designed to influence opinion.
• Currency -- You want to check to see if the page is dated, when it was last updated or any other information about whether or not the page is kept current.
• Coverage -- You want to check to see if the page is completed or under construction. If the material is based on a print resource, is it the full-text or only part of the text and is it the current version or an outdated version. Not that you can't use an abridged version of the text or an older version, but you need to know that's what you're using.

If you carefully evaluate a webpage based on the criteria listed above, you will have a good sense of the quality of the resource.