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Political Science: Web Resources

Evaluating Sources for Credibility

Website Evaluation

How do I evaluate websites for credibility? Try this checklist!

Resource Types

Domain Suffixes

The domain suffix of a website (the postscript at the end of a web address) can be a good indicator of the the website's authority and accuracy.

  • .com Commercial Site
  • .gov Government Agency
  • .edu Higher Education
  • .org Organization. May be charitable, religious, or a lobbying group.
  • .mil Military
  • .net Internet Service Provider
As you conduct your research, you may find external website sources providing additional information, research or commentary. As with any external source, please fully evaluate and verify against assignment resource parameters. If you have questions on selection of a resource, please feel free to connect with the course professor for review.

Library vs. Google

Branches of the U.S. Federal Government

Web Resources

National Archives: America's Founding Documents - Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights

Primary Documents of American History - Documents related to American history and the formation of the U.S. government

The United States Code - a consolidation and codification by subject matter of U.S. laws

Political Information -  search engine for politics, policy, and political news

Federal Election Commission - the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)

Google Newspaper Archive - collection of digitized historic and contemporary newspapers from the U.S. and Canada