FAQS

About.com articles are not usually considered reliable or credible resource for use in academic research. The About.com guides are technically blogs providing opinions and do not necessarily contain vetted information.

Note: ".com" websites are commercial websites and are usually selling something. This does not inherently make them unreliable, but the .com is an indicator that you should consider the bias caused by that interest.

If you want to find reliable information, it is better to use content from a source you know and trust, that has the appropriate credentials for providing the information, and an excellent reputation for quality.

For example, if you are looking for information on a disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might be an excellent place to find information that is more accurate, more up-to-date, less prone to bias, and more favorably viewed than an About.com article on the same disease.

How do you tell what websites are good and what websites are not? See our FAQ on resource evaluation for further information on how to assess website credibility.

In addition to the general free web, we also recommend that you use the library resources available through the Resources link in any of your online classes. For more information about using quality resources for research, please click here: http://rasmussen.libanswers.com/faq/32290