.org = Organizations. These sites are mainly non-profit, cultural, ecological or advocacy groups. For example, Greenpeace, BC Civil Liberties Association, The David Suzuki Foundation, PBS and 350.org, use this domain suffix. Generally, the information in these types of sites is credible and unbiased, but there are examples of organizations that strongly advocate one specific point of view. For example, some anti-abortion groups.
.com = Commercial. The information provided for commercial purposes is going generally positive about products or services promotion. The information may inform to a point but may be incomplete. There's a monetary incentive behind every commercial site whether it is for good public relations or to sell you a product.
.edu = U.S. Educational institutions. Sites using this domain name are U.S. based schools ranging from kindergarten to higher education. Information from the departments or research centers of the educational institutions are generally taken as credible.
gc.ca or .gov.bc.ca = Canadian government. Canadian federal and provincial site domains (gov.bc.ca is suffix for Government of British Columbia). All branches of the Canadian federal government use .ca. The information is considered to be from a credible source. .
.ca = Country of Canada domain suffix. It is used by Canadian sites such as The Narwahl : thenarwhal.ca
.gov = U.S. Government. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain suffix. Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain. The information is considered to be from a credible source.
.net = Network. You might find any kind of site under this domain suffix. It acts as a catch-all for sites that don't fit into any of the preceding domain suffixes. Information from these sites should be given careful scrutiny.
Truncate a URL to find out who is sponsoring a site.
The site address can give you clues as to ultimate sponsorship of a site. If you can't determine who wrote the site or who or what is sponsoring the site, try truncating the URL to its root address. This will tell you where the site is being hosted and will help inform you of the purpose of the site and to examine the information on that site in that context. For example, a site that is selling mineral supplements has that purpose may not be the best source for nutritional information.
You can't believe everything you read, see, or hear! Use the CRAAP test to evaluate the material you find online for your research so you avoid getting any unfit resources and all the "CRAAP" that is out there.
Currency refers to the timeliness of the information. A lot of information found on the web can be outdated, websites may no longer be maintained or updated. Ask the following questions when looking at a website to know if its CURRENCY is appropriate for you:
Relevancy refers to how the information relates to your topic and whether it is an appropriate academic source. Ask the following questions to find out the RELEVANCY of your resources:
Authority refers to who the author(s) is for your resource. If no author is present, you need to ask who is taking responsibility for this information? Is it an organization, a company, a person, no one? Questions to ask yourself when looking at the AUTHORITY of a website:
Accuracy is whether or not you can ensure that the information presented is accurate and neutral. Questions to ask yourself when looking at ACCURACY:
Purpose is why the website has been created, why are they providing this information freely online. Questions to ask yourself when looking for the PURPOSE are: