Ideally, everything you find through the library's tools would be legitimate e.g. peer-reviewed and/or scholarly. That is not always the case. Whether you have identified a resource through Google or a scholarly index like Proquest Politics you must critically evaluate every source before you use it.
There are a number of convenient checklists that have been developed to help you evaluate websites. Two of the most well-known checklists are included below: RADAR and CRAAP. Either option provides a list of questions to help you evaluate the information you retrieve from the web, whether scholarly in scope or not.
Option #1 for Evaluating Sources: RADAR
Relevance
- How is this information relevant to your assignment? Does it relate to your research question?
- Consider your audience and compare the information source with a variety of sources.
Authority
- Who is the author?
- What makes this person or organization an authoritative source?
Date
- When was this information published and is the publication date important to you?
Appearance
- Where are they getting their information from?
- Does it have citations and references?
- Are they using reputable sources or explaining how they gathered their data?
Reason for Writing
- The timeliness of the information.
- Is the information biased?
Adapted from Mandalios, J. (2013). RADAR: An approach for helping students evaluate Internet sources. Journal of Information Science, 39(4), 470-478.
Currency: The timeliness of the information.
- When was the information published or posted?
- Has the information been revised or updated?
- Does your topic require current information, or will older sources work as well?
- Are the links functional?
Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs.
- Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
- Who is the intended audience?
- Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
- Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is the one you will use?
- Would you be comfortable citing this source in your research paper?
Authority: The source of the information.
- Who is the author / publisher / source / sponsor?
- What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations?
- Is the author qualified to write on the topic?
- Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email address?
- Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source (examples: .com .edu .gov .org .net)?
Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content.
- Where does the information come from?
- Is the information supported by evidence?
- Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
- Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?
- Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion?
- Are there spelling, grammar or typographical errors?
Purpose: The reason the information exists.
- What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?
- Do the authors / sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
- Is the information fact, opinion or propaganda?
- Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
- Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?
For a handy CRAAP worksheet, refer to this rubric attributed to Central Library MCHS. It prompts you to score a site on each of the CRAAP criteria to come up with a final score that could range between a potentially "highly questionable source" to a "excellent source for research."
