Evaluating information is a critical part of the research process and is a valuable skill that will help you in everyday use of information.
Developing this skill now will help you long after you have graduated. Many criteria can be used to evaluate information, and we will focus on three: |
Authority
Who is responsible for writing the material? What are their credentials?
Relevance
How does this information relate to my topic? Will it help me to make a point?
Timeliness
Was the information researched and written at a time apporpriate to your topic?
The CRAAP Test is a common checklist used to evaluate an informaiton resource.
Currency: The timeliness of the web page.
Relevance: The uniqueness of the content and its importance for your needs.
Authority: The source of the web page.
Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.
Purpose: The presence of bias or prejudice/The reason the web site exists.
The CRAAP Test was created by Meriam Library at California State University, Chico.
Take a look at the address or URL. Do you know what the domain names are for websites? Here are the ones you will see most often.
.com = commercial
.org = organization
.net = network
.gov = government
.edu = education
If the articles you find do not cite sources or if you want to verify information, try some of these fact checking websites: