Evaluating Information Found on the Web (and elsewhere!)

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

• When was the information published or posted?
• Has the information been revised or updated?
• Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? "Age" is relative on the web. Certain documents are timeless-their value is determined completely by their place in the historical record. A document that is three or four years old can still be "timely" in certain disciplines; in fields where knowledge develops rapidly (e.g., the sciences) or data is expected to change (e.g., statistics), however, currency is more critical.
• 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 one you will use?
• Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Authority: The source of the information.

• Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
• Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
• What are the author's credentials or oganizational affiliations given?
• Is the website officially approved and recognized by the parent organization to which it is linked? Or is the relationship between the author and "publisher" a more casual or commercial one (an individual's AOL account, e.g.)? Be careful in your assessments, however: affiliations may have little to do with the reliability of a particular document. Although commercial service providers (like AOL) rent space to anyone willing to pay, you may certainly find trustworthy information published there. Likewise, a student's personal home page and a professor's research papers might both link back to a common address, like www.harvard.edu. But their legitimacy as resources, their relationships to the mission of Harvard, and their effects upon public perceptions of the College might be very different indeed.
• What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?
  Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?
  Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?
  examples: .com .edu .gov .org .net
• Be suspicious any time the author of a webpage is not identified by name
• Be suspicious of any site that has you contact an unnamed "Webmaster". You cannot assume that this individual has had anything at all to do with the creation of content; the "webmaster" may simply be the person who has formatted the information in hypertext.

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational 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 biased and free of emotion?
• Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors?

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

• What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?
• Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
  Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda?
• Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?

*The CRAAP acronym and descriptions are from Meriam Library at California State University Chico. CRAAP Test from the Meriam Library website.