Try to answer the following questions when evaluating a digital scholarship project:
- Who is the author(s) and why did the author(s) pursue this project as a digital project? What about this project makes it digital scholarship?
- Is the project easy to navigate and use? Does the home page offer you a clear description of the project’s purpose and central thesis?
- Does the project provide clear information regarding source materials (data collection, archival materials, etc)?
- Is the writing clear, succinct, and precise, or does it read like a traditional scholarly paper?
- What does this project tell us about the subject that a “traditional” research project couldn’t?
- Why did the author(s) choose these particular tools and methods to complete the project?
- What are the strengths of the project? How does it enrich our understanding of the subject?
- What are the shortcomings of the project? What additional work could the author(s) do to overcome these problems?
- Where does the funding or support for this project come from?
- Is the project currently being maintained and updated? If the project has gone through multiple iterations, what did the previous versions of the site look like? How has it changed over time? (The Wayback Machine can help you find out.)