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When you're looking for clues about an organization's expertise, make sure you're looking at how expert they are on the topic of your research assignment. Some organizations are experts on other topics, but that doesn't mean they'll have useful information about the topic you're researching. The example topic we're using here is: "What are some causes of climate change?"
Find out more about what makes someone an expert on a topic -->
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (need to investigate if it's actually an individual who's responsible)
There might be some clues on the website itself that tell you whether the organization responsible for this information is made up of experts on the topic.
One thing to notice about this website is that its URL ends in .edu. Only educational institutions like colleges, universities, or other academic-related organizations, are allowed to use the .edu ending.
This doesn't guarantee every webpage on the website was created by experts! But this page doesn't have an author's name so we can assume the organization as a whole is responsible for it.
Find out more about what URLs do and don't tell you -->
You can find even more clues on the organization's Wikipedia page that indicate expert-ness:
It's a consortium of colleges and universities, founded by people from leading universities
It's been around since 1959
It partnered with the National Science Foundation
If you're not familiar with other organizations mentioned in the Wikipedia article, click on the links to find out more about them.
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (need to investigate if it's actually an individual who's responsible)
A clue on this website is that it's URL ends in .gov.
Only agencies that are part of an American city, county, state, or the U.S. federal government can post information on websites with that URL ending.
This doesn't guarantee that everyone who posts on a .gov website is an expert on the topic they're posting about!
But in this case, there are enough clues on the webpage that a government agency is responsible for the information that we don't need to investigate the expert-ness any further.
Find out more about what URLs do and don't tell you -->
NON-PROFIT EXPERTS ON A TOPIC/CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS (usually good for school research)
Some organizations that are experts on a topic are non-profits, like this one.
A big clue that it's a non-profit organization is the "Join & Support" link
Most museums are experts on their topics because they're considered "cultural institutions."
You might want to double check that natural history is related closely enough to climate change to make sure their expertise is relevant. (It is.)
Just to be safe, you could see what Wikipedia has to say. In this case, there are clues that tell us the museum has enough expert-ness for you to use their website as an information sources for this research assignment:
It's huge in terms of size, collection, and scientific staff
5 million people wouldn't visit them every year if they didn't know what they were doing
NON-PROFIT SERVICE PROVIDERS/RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS (usually good for school research)
Most non-profit organizations focus on a particular topic. Some, however, focus on performing a particular service.
In this case, the Pew Research Center focuses on polls and other ways of gathering data about a wide range of topics. Their expertise is doing research.
It wouldn't help you answer the question, "What are some causes of climate change?" but it would help you understand what Americans think about climate change.
There are other research institutions (known as "think tanks") that take sides on issues and try to influence policies.
Pew is an example of a research institution that just presents data that others can use when making decisions about policies.
Find out about organizations that do take sides on issue or promote a cause other than knowledge -->
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (usually OK for school research)
There are some clues that this is the website of a "professional organization":
The links that mention "Membership," "Meetings," and "Education & Careers"
The organization is made up of members of the meteorological profession. (You can find even more in the Wikipedia article below.) We can tell they're all experts on the topic--or, at least, they should be if they want to keep their jobs!
The only reason you might not want to use the website of a professional organization as an information source for a research assignment is that their main audience is those members of the profession. They may not explain things in ways that people who aren't yet professional meteorologists can understand.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
Some websites may look like they were created by a professional organization, but they were actually created by a trade association. A key difference between the two is that professional organizations represent individual people who work in that profession, while trade associations represent corporations.
One reason NOT to use this website as an information source for a research assignment about causes of climate change is that, while the people who made this website might be experts on extracting fossil fuels, there are no clues that indicate they're experts on climate change.
In fact, another reason NOT to use the American Petroleum Institute as an information source for this research assignment is that they may have misrepresented the truth because their perspective may have been distorted by bias. They might not have! But if there's any chance they have, it's worth further investigation.
Find out more about perspectives and bias -->
Return to the "Organizations' purposes" page -->
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