There are all kinds of information full of website, When we need some referrences for research or work, how to pick up useful datum for us and distinguish its accuracy?
Use several sources and common sense. Look what sources write in general and avoid sites that have an either left- or rightwing bias, or that have an agenda. Avoid websites from countries that have no free press.
One of the good things about Wikipedia is that it is Wikipedia policy that all facts in Wikipedia be "verifiable."
That is, in principle, every important fact in Wikipedia is <em>supposed</em> to have an inline citation that tells you the source of the information. Often, of course, they don't. But if you think something is wrong, and there is no source given, Wikipedia policy says you can tag it "citation needed," and if nobody comes up with a source, you can remove it.
There's also a policy on what sources are considered reliable. A newspaper usually is, a personal blog is not. You can't post on your personal blog "The moon is made of green cheese" and then put that is a fact into Wikipedia, citing your own blog as the source).
Thus, if you read in Wikipedia's article on the English language,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
that English "now a global lingua franca,[4][5]" there are two references that answer the question "Who says so?" One of them is "Crystal, David (2003a). English as a Global Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-521-53032-3."
If you are willing to take the trouble to follow up on Wikipedia's references, then I believe that Wikipedia is a good, reliable source.
To put it another, way, if you yourself are writing something, you should not use a Wikipedia article as a source, but you might very well use the Wikipedia article as a guide to good sources you <em>can</em> use.
Hey!
It can also be helpful to look at the URL. Most links ending with 'org' are credible; most that have 'edu' at the end are always good and come from universities.
There really isn't a true way of telling; the best way is to read the information of the website.
Check your sources! Corrobate the information that you find (that is what research is about). If the original source seems to come from nowhere, then you have every reason to doubt it.
One of the worst errors that modern writers make is pick out information from anywhere without checking it. Sure, they can tell us the source, but the source may well be nonsense.
