Acceptable & Unacceptable Internet Sources of Information Content Author: Judy Bailey, Ph.D. Please click here to view a video on "Evaluating Sources for Credibility" posted by The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University, before continuing to read this lecture. More Information on Evaluating Sources While the video above gives you some excellent information on evaluating internet sites as to acceptability for academic & business research, this lecture below will give you some specifics and practical examples. There are really two main criteria you should be using to determine if a site is acceptable: In other words, is the person or persons who wrote an article or provided information knowledgeable in the topic? Are they recognized experts or "amateurs" that are just posting their opinions? Individual authority: The author has the appropriate academic degrees or has conducted peer-reviewed research on this topic. Publishing body or organizational authority: The organization reviews the information it publishes for authority and accepts for publication only documents that have been reviewed by expert peers. Is the author or the organization presenting the information an objective source? Do they present their point of view or a political affiliation? Do they have a reputation for objectivity? Do they publish opinion or substantiated facts? Do they have a mission that is political or commercial? Unacceptable Sources As a general rule, if you can't find out who wrote something and where they got their information, DON"T USE IT! There are several commonly accessed websites on the internet that provide information but don't screen or even always identify their sources. Included in this list of unacceptable sources are the following: · This organization says about itself, "Wikipedia is written collaboratively by an international group of volunteers. Anyone with internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles." · In its user agreement, this site says, "The Service and the Sites contain information, facts and opinions from various individuals and organizations. THE SERVICE AND THE SITES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OTHER THAN THOSE WARRANTIES WHICH ARE IMPOSED BY AND INCAPABLE OF EXCLUSION, RESTRICTION OR MODIFICATION UNDER THE LAWS APPLICABLE TO THIS AGREEMENT. NEITHER ABOUT.COM NOR ITS AFFILIATES ENDORSE OR ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY OPINION, ADVICE OR STATEMENT ON THE SERVICE OR THE SITES." · These are also unacceptable sources because information is contributed by readers, and we know nothing about their qualifications and how they are screened. · Any other sites where information is provided by readers, including blogs and social media sites, such as Mashable. Anyone can contribute to a blog, so we .

1. Acceptable & Unacceptable Internet Sources of Information
Content Author: Judy Bailey, Ph.D.
Please click here to view a video on "Evaluating Sources for
Credibility" posted by The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins
University, before continuing to read this lecture.
More Information on Evaluating Sources
While the video above gives you some excellent information on
evaluating internet sites as to acceptability for academic &
business research, this lecture below will give you some
specifics and practical examples. There are really two main
criteria you should be using to determine if a site is acceptable:
In other words, is the person or persons who wrote an article or
provided information knowledgeable in the topic? Are they
recognized experts or "amateurs" that are just posting their
opinions?
Individual authority: The author has the appropriate academic
degrees or has conducted peer-reviewed research on this topic.
Publishing body or organizational authority: The organization
reviews the information it publishes for authority and accepts
for publication only documents that have been reviewed by
expert peers.
Is the author or the organization presenting the information an
objective source? Do they present their point of view or a
political affiliation? Do they have a reputation for objectivity?
Do they publish opinion or substantiated facts? Do they have a
mission that is political or commercial?
Unacceptable Sources
As a general rule, if you can't find out who wrote something and
where they got their information, DON"T USE IT! There are

2. several commonly accessed websites on the internet that provide
information but don't screen or even always identify their
sources.
Included in this list of unacceptable sources are the following:
· This organization says about itself, "Wikipedia is written
collaboratively by an international group of volunteers. Anyone
with internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia
articles."
· In its user agreement, this site says, "The Service and the Sites
contain information, facts and opinions from various individuals
and organizations. THE SERVICE AND THE SITES ARE
PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES
OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OTHER THAN
THOSE WARRANTIES WHICH ARE IMPOSED BY AND
INCAPABLE OF EXCLUSION, RESTRICTION OR
MODIFICATION UNDER THE LAWS APPLICABLE TO THIS
AGREEMENT. NEITHER ABOUT.COM NOR ITS
AFFILIATES ENDORSE OR ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE
ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY OPINION, ADVICE
OR STATEMENT ON THE SERVICE OR THE SITES."
· These are also unacceptable sources because information is
contributed by readers, and we know nothing about their
qualifications and how they are screened.
· Any other sites where information is provided by readers,
including blogs and social media sites, such as Mashable.
Anyone can contribute to a blog, so we cannot accept these as
authoritative sources.

3. · Note: Do not be tricked into thinking that because something
comes from a university website, it must be written by
professors or doctoral students. Sometimes, the Internet pulls
up sources that are actually student papers, which are obviously
unacceptable. For example, this URL contains a clue that this is
written by students as a project for a class:
http://public.csusm.edu/fangfang/Teaching/HTMmaterial/Studen
tProjectFall2011/Team7.pdf.
Other unacceptable sources include online news presentations.
These sometimes present accurate and objective information,
but they also sometimes present opinion and analysis as fact.
For this reason, you should not use them in research reports.
These include CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and other such
networks.
Generally Acceptable Sources
Some examples of acceptable internet sources are U.S.
Government organizations such as:
U.S. Center for Disease Control
U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Small Business Administration
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health
Administration
State Government sites such as www.michigan.gov
In addition, most non-profit professional associations are
acceptable sources of information. Examples of such
associations would be the following:

4. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
American Medical Association
American Bar Association
You do need to be aware, however, that some non-profit
associations are trade associations whose purpose is to promote
an industry or group of people through public relations
activities such as advertising, political donations, lobbying, and
publishing. Obviously these organizations are biased and their
information cannot be trusted.
There are some well-respected newspapers and journals that
have online sites that are generally acceptable as sources of
valid information. These include:
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
Scientific American
The Journal of Nature
However, you need to verify with your instructor whether those
sources are acceptable for a particular assignment.
Possibly Acceptable Sources
There are some company web sites that can be used on a limited
basis, depending on what information you are using them for.
For example, you can find a copy of the annual report on many
company websites, however, you need to remember that while
these documents mostly present accurate facts to stockholders,
they do not tell you everything about what is happening at that
company. This means financial figures are probably accurate,

5. but glowing reports of wonderful things the company is doing
may not be so accurate. You will want to verify these things
with more objective articles from the library online databases.
You can also obtain accurate technical specifications and
suggested retail prices on products from a company website.
However, you would not want to take their evaluations on their
own products without further verification from more objective
sources.
Here are the assigned discussion questions for Week 6:
1) Discuss vertical zonation in the marine environment
2) Discuss some adaptations organisms in the open ocean use to
avoid predation
3) Discuss the classification of plankton by each of these
factors:
a) Size
b) Mode of nutrition
c) Life history
d) Taxonomic category
4) What is the bacterial loop, and why is it important in the
open ocean?
5) Explain the relationship between pressure and ocean depth
6) Discuss some adaptations of deep-sea organisms to high
pressure
7) Discuss some adaptations of deep-sea organisms to low
temperatures
8) Discuss some adaptations of deep-sea organisms to lack of
food
9) Discuss the adaptive value of bioluminescence for deep-sea
organisms
Using this week’s assigned readings (and maybe an occasional
peak at Google) you should be able to find the answers to your
assigned discussion question. You must write one original post

6. for your own assigned discussion question and two replies two
other students’ posts. Each post should be at least 100 words in
length. For full credit, link to a webpage that pertains to the
subject. Have fun!
Beware of Biased Statements from Company Websites
Content Author: Judy Bailey, Ph.D.
It is perfectly acceptable to use information from a company
website to get information on products. However, you need to
be careful that you are using ONLY objective information and
are not accepting everything that company says about their
products as being objective and true.
Remember that while companies are careful to give accurate
technical specs online and in brochures, these documents are
mainly written by marketing people who want you to buy their
products, hence they also offer information which may be
undocumented opinion. I sometimes call this sales stuff
"marketing speak".
Here is a sample of a paragraph written by a student who was
paraphrasing from a General Motors' website. (She has agreed
to let me use it as an example.) I am not pointing this out
specifically about GM because every single seller of a product
does this. Look at this and ask yourself what is fact and what is
opinion.
"The Chevrolet Cruze offers a unique combination of
technology and efficiency. Within its classifications, this
vehicle is very affordable in relation to cost and gas mileage.
Miles per gallon for the Cruze are 30 city and 40 highway. The
Chevy Cruze offers advanced safety technology to help you feel
confident when you drive. It includes rear park assist, forward
collision alert, lane keep assist, and rear vision camera. The
manufacturer's suggested retail price starts at $16,975."
(General Motors, 2016)

7. In this version, I have put the provable facts in blue:
"The Chevrolet Cruze offers a unique combination of
technology and efficiency. Within its classifications, this
vehicle is very affordable in relation to cost and gas mileage.
Miles per gallon for the Cruze are 30 city and 40 highway. The
Chevy Cruze offers advanced safety technology to help you feel
confident when you drive. It includes rear park assist, forward
collision alert, lane keep assist, and rear vision camera.The
manufacturer's suggested retail price starts at $16,975."
(General Motors, 2016)
The comments about offering a "unique combination of
technology and efficiency" and the vehicle being "very
affordable" and the safety features making you "feel confident"
are all undocumented opinion and obviously written to make
you buy the vehicle! Even calling safety technology "advanced"
might be something that the competition might disagree with.
The point is that when you are using information from company
and retailer's websites, you need to be judicious about which
"facts" you should use if you are trying to be objective.
The interoffice memo assignment that is due in draft form on
November 18 and in final form on November 20 evaluates
products that will solve a business problem. Your assignment
specifies that you need to include at least three “high-quality”
research sources in your reference page. A high-quality source
is likely to provide accurate, trustworthy, and objective
information.
First, review the two items I posted last week on how to
determine if a source is “high-quality”:
· Lecture – Acceptable & Unacceptable Internet Sources of
Information. This one contains a video from the Johns Hopkins
University that suggests some ways to determine the

8. trustworthiness of research and published articles and some
examples I have put together of acceptable and unacceptable
internet sources.
· Lecture – Beware of Biased Statement from Company
Websites. Since you will also be using information from
company websites and retailers of products for your report, I
have written this short lecture to help you identify information
which is trustworthy and objective and to avoid information that
is likely to be biased on those sites.
Then, complete the following in your original posting. Please
number your responses:
1. Briefly describe the problem you intend to solve in your
report and the types of products you plan to evaluate for your
recommendation. (For example, you might say something like,
“The retail store I work at has been having a problem with our
20-year-old cash register continually going down. I want to
evaluate purchasing a newer cash register that will be more
reliable.” Or you might say, “Our office has only one, older
printer. It prints only black and white, but we need to print
proposals in color in order to best present our services.
Currently, we have been going out to a quick printer to have
these done, which is costing us time and money we do not
have. I plan to evaluate potential color printers that will meet
our needs."
2. List three (3) specific information sources you might use that
are “high-quality” and good sources of accurate information.
Provide correctly formatted references for each source. Note
that by “sources” I mean specific articles or pages on a web site
that will appear in your reference list. (You may have to do
some research on websites by using the "About" link that most
web pages provide and finding out what you can about the
owners of the website and the people who write articles for that
site and how they are compensated.)
3. Explain what makes each of these three information sources
"high quality" by citing information from the two lectures listed
above. You need at least two citations in your discussion and

9. provide references as needed.