michigan informatics

Evaluate Your Results

Finally, you need to be able to evaluate the resources that you find on the Internet. This is especially true with health information, as it can often be difficult to tell who created the resource, what their qualifications are, and what bias they might have. For example, health statistics can be misrepresented, sources are often not cited, and authorship is rarely attributed, except to an institution or corporation.

Watch: Evaluate a Web Site

There are many different criteria and tools for evaluating resources. The following are the important pieces of information that you should look for. These are based on the HONcode for Medical & Health Sites and the Health Summit Working Group’s “Criteria for Evaluating Internet Health Information”.

1. Authorship: Information on the author is provided.
2. Affiliation: The author's affiliation is given.
3. Currency: The date of document creation and/or update is given.
4. Justifiability: Balanced evidence is presented.
5. Attribution: References to source data are given.
6. Editorial Review: The process for editorial review is explained.
7. Sponsorship: Funding sources are identified.
8. Advertising Policy: Advertising is clearly distinguished from content.
9. Disclosure: Users are informed of the purpose of the site.