The internet is an incredibly versatile and varied source of information. However, not all information that you find online is created equal. In order to do effective research online, you will need to be able to distinguish between good information and bad, and also learn to cite your online sources in such a way that they supplement your credibility when you deliver your findings.

Here are some tips for doing research online:

Use Google as a Guide, Not an Authority
When you use Google or any other search engine to do an internet search, you will get a lot of options for sources of information. Just because these webpages show up in search results does not mean that they are valid sources of information. You will have to evaluate the information and content on these sites to determine if they are a good source or not.

Check the Authors' Credentials
Just about anyone can post just about anything they please online. However, there is no certification process that marks one website as an acceptable source of information and another as a source of invalid information. For this reason, you need to identify who compiled the information before you determine if they are a good source. If they have other publications on this topic, or have a resume that indicates that they should know about the topic that their website covers, then it is probably safe to use the information.

Know When to Rely on Peer-Reviewed Publications
If you are researching information for a scientific publication, then you probably need to use data that you can verify in peer-reviewed journals. Fortunately, this is fairly easy to do (assuming that the information is, in fact accurate) by using Google Scholar to search all peer-reviewed publications online and determine if your information is accurate. You can also contact the author directly to find out how they determined the results and findings.

When you do online research, it is your responsibility to insure that your facts are straight. If you fail to do so, the only person who will suffer is you because you will lose credibility thanks to your reticence when it came to fact-checking. It is vitally important that you insure your information is good before you distribute it or hand it over to another member of your work team.