Popular question this week

Not all information available on the internet is suitable for academic purposes and it's important to critically evaluate the source of the information before you use it.

The Library has developed a guide to help you evaluate a website using the BADURL acronym.

B is for Bias, a slant towards a particular point of view.

A is for Authority, who created the page?

D is for Date, is the information current?

U is for URL, academic or educational sites (.ac or .edu) are more likely to provide reliable academic research.

R is for relevance, is it relevant to your research topic?

L is for links, do the links work indicating the site is maintained and updated.

 

The Student Learning Development Centre have also developed some modules to help with a whole range of study skills. There is a module called Evaluating Information Sources which includes a section on Evaluating Websites.

 

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