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?)

Using the C.R.A.P. evaluation criteria in the box on this page, what is your evaluation of the following web page?

• Is it Current enough? How did you determine this?
• Is it Reliable? What evidence did you find?
• Is it Authoritative? Do you trust the authors?  Why?
• What is its Purpose?  How did you decide this?