EAP1686 | Professor Porges-West

Evaluating Websites (using the RADAR method)

R   Relevance
A   Authority
D   Date
A   Appearance
R   Reason for writing

Relevance: HOW is the information that you have found relevant to your assignment?
Authority: WHO is the author (this may be a person or an organization)

•  What tells you that they are authoritative? What are their credentials?
  •  ls the author well known and respected?
  • Does the author work for a reputable institution, e.g. a university, research center or organization (e.g. NASA)?
  • Does the author have good qualifications and experience?
  • What does the "About Us" button tell you?
  • Is other information available about them (e.g. from Google)?
  • Does the URL of the site give you clues about authority?

                                      ► Look for names of reputable organizations in the URL
                                      ► Look at the endings of the web addresses:

 -.edu or .ac indicate universities (but be careful because these addresses may also be used by students:% or - before a     name indicates that the author is a student

-.gov indicates official government sites

-.org indicates a non-profit organization

•  Does knowing the authority of the site help you make a judgment about the ACCURACY of the information?
• Even if you have doubts about the authority of the site, does it contain links to other authoritative or helpful sources?

Date: WHEN was the information published? Is the publication date important to you?
Appearance: WHAT CLUES can you get from the APPEARANCE of the source?

• Does the information look serious and professional? Does it have citations and references?
• Is it written in formal, academic language? Or does it look as if it was written by a nonprofessional?
• Does it look as if it was published for children?  • Or to sell something?

Reason for writing: WHY did the writer publish this?

• To produce a balanced, well-researched, professional piece of work to add to the body of knowledge?
• Was it written as part of an ongoing debate, to counter an opposing claim?
• Or is it for propaganda, and biased? Note: a biased or problematic site may still be useful to you; the key is to recognize its bias or limitations.
• Or was it written in order to sell something? • Or is it a spoof site, written for fun?

Mandalios, Jane. “RADAR: An Approach for Helping Students Evaluate Internet Sources.” Journal of Information Science, vol. 39, no. 4,

2013, pp. 470–78, https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551513478889.