Organizations that sell or promote a product or service

It's pretty obvious that this website was created by a business: it has "exxonmobil.com" in the URL.

If your research topic was "What are ExxonMobil's latest projects?" this would be a good information source to use. But since our example research topic is "What are some causes of climate change?" it is NOT a good information source.

This business has a strong perspective on the topic that might lead them to misrepresent the truth.

One reason to do some investigating before using an information source is that it might not be what it claims to be.

In this case, the Institute for Energy Research is indeed a "not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets."

However, an investigation into who funds this non-profit organization turns up some clues that it may actually be promoting a business. The clues are:

• It's described as a "front group"

• And it was founded by Charles Koch, who is well-known for the side he takes on this issue

In cases like this, it's best to treat the organization as if it's the same as the businesses that are funding it.

That means NOT using it as an information source for this research assignment.