Occupational Therapy

Guide to research in the area of occupational therapy. Also helpful for the areas of physical therapy, nursing, health, physiology and kinesiology.

Advanced Google Search & Evaluation with C.R.A.P

Advanced Google Searching

Use Google Advanced Search for power searching on the general web

Note your ability to limit to one particular domain (.gov, .edu, .org):

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Image of Google Advanced Search page

Evaluating sources using the C.R.A.P test

Use the C.R.A.P. Evaluation criteria below to evaluate the quality of your source.

  • If your source does not satisfy these criteria, you may want to find a different, more credible source
Currency
  • When was the source published or updated?
  • Is currency of info important for your topic? (Does info change rapidly or frequently?)
  • Is older, historical info important for your topic?
Reliability
  • Where do the facts or info come from?
  • Is content of the resource primarily opinion? Primarily fact? Is  it balanced?
  • Can you find citations or lists of references?
  • Can you verify any of the info in another source?
  • Does the source go through some type of review process before it is published?
Authority
  • Is the info from an authoritative source?
  • What is considered “authoritative” for your topic?
  • Can you determine the author’s or organization’s qualifications, credentials, expertise, affiliations, experience?
  • Does the author acknowledge any biases?
Purpose
  • Why is this info being published? To inform, teach, sell, entertain, persuade, other? How did you determine this?
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Can you determine if the publisher/sponsor has political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?
  • For web sources, what is the domain? (.edu, .gov, .com, .org, .net, other?)

Selected Websites

Selected Websites for Cross-Cultural Medicine & Health Psychology

US National Library of Medicine Population Groups

Websites

Free Website Databases

Organizations

Health & Disability Statistics

Internet Gateways for Occupational Therapy