¶ … Online Sources Using the Online Environment

The availability of online information has made a tremendous difference in many fields of endeavor including daily interactions. Many journals now have articles that are 'online first' before print; others comment on these online articles and critique even before the print issue exists. Online access also broadens the ease of accessing materials without a nearby extensive library. This is true in nearly every profession: science, economics, finance, business, nursing, medicine, hairdressing, and etc., (Leiner et al., 2003). Access to online information has changed the information paradigm. There is now a necessity and obligation to understand what appropriate online information consists of.

Use of social media and online tools for information-searching and access has increased considerably in recent years. Information is not only proliferating but is being shared more quickly than when print was the only medium available. The use of online media is a revolution like the societal transformation caused by the printing press. Individuals can communicate in 'real time' with others across international datelines and search for information using online platforms such as chat rooms (Vaughn.tv.com), WebMD, Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook, and YouTube (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.59).

Online businesses are thriving, with some like Amazon.com moving from being book sellers to include movie and grocery businesses; others like Walmart.com may sell as much online as they do in a 'brick and mortar' store. Individuals start up their own businesses with merely an online presence. The 'information highway' provides businesses with details of customer preferences from Facebook 'likes', and many corporations now have a Facebook presence, while corporate consultants write online articles on use of Twitter/Facebook to 'grow your business' (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.60). Individuals meet, 'friend', and marry others whom they've met online, and 'dating sites' match up individuals; specialized niche markets are arising in all directions. However, the 'glut of information' means an individual can be prey to false and/or misleading information if they do not know how to investigate and verify online sources, business reputation, and/or the veracity of online 'personal details' from a new Facebook friend who might be a predator.

Web Citations

For most individuals, a precise understanding of what 'online sources' means may be limited. Also, many have not considered that the 'interweb' can simultaneously be both full of factual resources and full of misinformation. Using the web to find answers to questions has become almost trivial, as one only needs to type a few words or phrases into a search window to have many pages of links to sources 'pop up'.

The first step in obtaining information knows how to ask the right questions. Search engines now will accept almost any question and provide answers, but, the more clearly the question is phrased, and the more 'delimiting' terms used, the more likely one is to actually find the desired information (Macaulay, n.d.). Consider a hypothetical situation, where your mother has high blood pressure first thing every morning. You type in "cause of morning elevated blood pressure," and find a variety of sites. You tell her that many of the sites listed will be sales-pitches, as that is how 'free' search engines (Google, Bing, and/or Yahoo) generate income. Many other sites will be ads disguised as helpful information, and/or other misinformation sites. What should she and you do? Consider looking for reliable sources of online medical advice, such as WebMD (2015) or Wikipedia, a compendium of information like an encyclopedia. Because online users can contribute to Wikipedia and it is thus 'collaborative' (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.60), Wikipedia is very powerful. As well, Wikipedia articles have detailed reference lists, leading to checkable primary 'sources'.

The types of information available online are increasing, including ancient artifact photos, maps, and letters. The types of sites where information can be found vary widely. Some sites require one to sign in and/or become a subscriber to gain information; subscription maybe prohibitively expensive, even if useful. Other sites may send e-mails and/or newsletters even to individuals who are not full subscribers, and as Vardi (2012, p.510) says, there are also traps even for the more advanced professionals. In the areas of medical and scientific research, a considerable amount of data is available for 'free', such as on the PubMed data base; many articles can be seen in their entirety by just clicking 'free full article'.

Once one finds the appropriate reference information for a course paper...

Online papers and reviews of books can be tremendously valuable for those not having a large budget for books, or access to a fully complete library. Proper citation of an online document includes author's name, publication name and date, volume, issue, and page numbers, as well as other details such as publisher, editors, etc., (Castle 2007, p.163). When citing an online source, providing the online link in the bibliography or reference list and date accessed is important; websites may be updated, and online data may be altered and/or removed. Referencing styles vary according to the discipline, with scientific references usually numbered in the text (also Wikipedia), whereas scholarly articles in other fields use in-text author's names.
Perhaps the best way to approach the use of online sources is to be aware that perhaps as much as 50-60% of data found in a general search (using google, bing, or yahoo) is likely to turn up information that is sales- and/or business -related and may not be scholarly. While this may be an exaggeration, it is important to find primary sources. When searching specific databases such as Pubmed there are no advertisements, and only scientific studies are found. Then one is enabled to go through and select relevant publications, only being limited by appropriate search terms, which is perhaps one of the most important aspects of using online data. One of the best ways to do an online search is to discuss search terms with the course instructor and/or library professions. The methods of metacognition (HLN, 2004) can be very useful in considering how to perform a search; this is especially the case as we do not all think 'alike' and might use different works in writing on the same topic such as 'ancient art' or 'historical art' or 'pre-historic art', etc. This is where collaboration can be helpful (CWP, 2010). According to Trinkle, (1996) books can sometimes be helpful such as The European History Highway: A Guide to Internet Resources.

Evaluating the credibility of online sources

Following a successful online search, one must next carefully examine sources found to evaluate their credibility, and to properly list the source in one's report. As stated by Metzger (2007), one should verify that the report still holds (has not been 'corrected' or 'retracted'), and the validity of the article has not been altered by a new, contradictory report (Metzger, 2007). Some web articles, that are not primary sources, may excerpt part of an article to provide a particular 'slant'. This is why primary sources are important. As well, sometimes authors were funded to write a report, and this information is required for scientific journals as 'conflict of interest' statements, but may not be required in all fields. One consideration is to avoid websites for which it is not obvious 'why' they were formed, which may be indicative of a hidden agenda or data slant.

Advantages and Limitations of Online sources

Advantages to online sources include ability to readily access more sources than might be available locally; accessing information regardless of one's location; being able to work collaboratively; and accessing the most current data. It can also be less expensive if one is creative, perhaps avoiding the necessity to buy textbooks and journals, and it provides more diverse types of information, such as access to governmental and global organization data bases like the World Health Organization or the United Nations, etc.

However, as discussed above, online data may be contaminated with a large percentage of business sales pages in the guise of real primary information. These sites may make claims that are not backed up with source material. Also, because anyone with skills to put up a web-page can do so, there may be false and/or slanted information that appears valid. This is likely to be particularly true in the political arena. While it is true that credible sources require subscriptions for full access, a paid subscription may not be needed. Leading scientific journals have 'open access' for some articles and will often provide newsletter information for non-subscribers. A large drawback to online information may be that sites can change frequently, and once good citations may lead to 'dead' pages, with no information leading one to the new source material. As well, even highly collaborative sites such as Wikipedia (CWP, do have material that is biased on some topics, despite best efforts. One must learn to check references and sources.

Privacy and Ethics

This brings up another problem of using the web -- privacy. This may be considered either a 'side-issue' to some, or a very important…