My English teacher told my class that we could only use .edu or .gov websites for Internet research. I understand that it would be impossible for her to check nearly 100 students' sources, but I was stilled bothered her poilcy.

Many .edu sources I found were research papers by students or professors, which I wouldn't consider "credible" information necessarily. I wasn't able to find any .gov research (it was a literary project.) This teacher also forbid TIME and Newsweek articles, claiming that they were nothing but gossip.

Although I turned this project in many months ago, I'm curious (for my own sake) how to determine an Internet source credible. Are there certain domain names, or is it a case by case basis? How reliable are ".edu" sites anyway? Surely .edu sites contain as much "opinion" as Newspapers or news magazines?

And as a side note, in what situations are news magazines credible sources? Perhaps with biographical info., but not political analysis? Thank you!

Any source (web or print) is only as credible as the person who provided the information. Some are incredibly reliable and some are not.

The idea behind wanting .edu and .gov sources is that these often cite their sources. News magazines may well be filled with facts, but they don't often cite their source of information any better than "a spokesman from...... said" and that doesn't cut it in academic research.