IDS 402: Business Ethics

Authority

• Who is the author? Check for “About,” “Bio,” “Background” or other links. 
• The information may be presented by an organization (government, nonprofit, business, etc.), this is called a corporate author.
• What are their credentials, and are those credentials relevant to the topic?
• What is the domain of the website? Government (.gov) and educational (.edu) sources are generally considered more authoritative than commercial (.com) or organizational (.org) sources. Some .orgs do belong to nonprofit or other trustworthy organizations, but be sure to evaluate the content.

Bias

• If the author is an individual a group of individuals, what are their affiliations? Do they work for a government agency, academic institution, political organization, or company?
• If affiliated with an organization, or a corporate author, is there a possible profit, political, or other motive or bias that might influence the information provided?