University of Minnesota Libraries
Use the START evaluation criteria to help you decide if the World Wide Web pages that you've
discovered are good, reputable sources of information, or questionable
in quality.
START is:
Scope Treatment Authority
Relevance Timeliness
For each site that you find, measure it against the START checklist below.
Scope
- Is your topic covered fully?
- How does the site compare with other information you've seen on the topic
(journal articles, books?)
- What aspect of the topic doesn't the Web site cover?
Treatment
- What is the site's purpose: To inform, persuade, present opinions, report
research or sell a product?
- Does the Web site contain documented facts or personal opinion?
- Does it show any bias?
- Do the graphics add to the content of the site?
- Are sources for information cited?
Authority
- Is the author or source of information identified?
- Are the author's qualifications, experience and/or institutional affiliation
given?
- Is the author's education and/or experience related to the topic?
- Is contact information for the author included in the document?
- What type of institution (government, university, company, or non-profit)
supports this Web site? What more can you discover about the organization,
using the Web or other sources?
Relevance
- Can you use this information to support an argument you make in your paper
or project?
- Has the information on the page been transcribed from another source?
(If yes, this indicates second-hand information; you might want to check the
original source, often given in a footnote.)
- Did you get to this Web site via a link from a Web site you know and trust?
Timeliness
- Is the content up to date?
- Is the date of creation or most recent revision clearly shown?
- Regardless of the date, is the information still useful?
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