No Author Listed

While you want to be careful of sources without authors, that doesn’t mean you can’t use them. Often, websites will not list an author. In that case, you need to evaluate the sponsoring organization. Look for the following information:

• Does the home page offer information about the organization?
   
• Is there a mission statement?
   
• Does the site offer any indication that the material on the webpage has been reviewed or checked by experts, often called a “peer-review process”?
   
• Does the site provide a link with an address, phone, and email?

If the answer to all of the above is “no,” be careful! A site that provides no information about its sponsors is a site that you should avoid using for your paper. If no one is willing to put her or his name on the site and accept responsibility for the information, do you think you should trust that information for your research? Definitely not.

If you find only some of the points from the bulleted list above, try filling in the blanks with an internet search on the organization. Often, an encyclopedia—online or hard copy—provides background information on an organization. Try to find out a little bit about who funds it, who its audience is, and what its objectives are. Again, discovering that an organization has specific ideological ties does not mean that you need to discard the material you have found there. You simply need to use it carefully and balance it with material from other sources.