The Internet is rapidly becoming an important source of information for many people. However, knowing which Internet resources to trust is often difficult since anyone may publish information in this way and it is not always accurate or reliable.

BCKOnline attempts to address this issue of credibility and authoritativeness by supplying the user with a narrative 'quality report' for each resource contained within the portal. The overall objective is:

• to inform the user of certain characteristics which may or may not be present in the individual resource
• to concentrate on those features which international 'best practice' agrees constitute evidence of information 'quality'
• to allow the user to prioritise and make the ultimate decision as to which 'quality' features are important. This will often depend on the kind of information being sought.

Each 'quality report' is therefore a short summary alerting the user to various aspects of the material that may influence, or guide, the user in evaluating the resource and trusting the information provided.

Each quality report informs the user as to:

• Authorship: Is the author a researcher, a clinician, a lay author, a consumer group, or a medical or cancer organization?
• Publisher: Is the publisher a commercial organization, an educational institution, or a consumer group?
• Review Process: what kind of review, if any, has this material undergone prior to publication?
• References: Does the material contain references to other sources of evidence?
• Evidence: What kind of 'evidence' is used in the material? Does the evidence represent data from randomized clinical trials (RCT), meta-analyses of RCTs, case studies, or is the 'evidence' primarily based on personal opinion?
• Purpose: why was this material published? Does it intend to 'educate' and inform, to 'commercialise' a product, to report results from a study, or is it intended for discussion purposes via a bulletin board or listserv?
• Balance: Are the views and/or contents of the resource controversial? That is, do they represent opinions which at this point in time have not been accepted as orthodox thinking? Is this 'fact' made clear to the user?
• Current: Is the resource out of date and no longer applicable?

Given the above information, BCKOnline believes that the user is in a position to pursue those resources which meet individual values and preferences regarding 'quality'. BCKOnline does not presume to RATE the individual 'quality' of resources. This judgement is left to users.