Evaluating Sources

Evaluating sources for credibility and reliability is essential, especially with websites. We want to evaluate if the author of the source is has the expertise to write the source and the objectivity to just provide information. So what we do is put that to the C.R.A.P test.

C - Currency What was the last update of the source? What is the copyright of the source?

R - Reliability Does the author provide references in a works cited, bibliography or footnotes? Does the author indicate where she derived the information?

A - Author What are the credentials of the author? Does she work for an accredited university or college? Can you determine any background on the author? Is the author of the source listed?

P - Purpose Why was the source created? To inform? To persuade? To sell you something?

Once you have considered these questions, you'll be better informed as to whether you should use it in your research or not.

Use the handy chart below to evaluate a website.

Other considerations for websites:

Presentation - how the website looks can give offer some insight. Is it easy to find information? Is it busy and crowded? Are there subpages and are they organized logically? Are there ads (that may indicate that this is a personal site and the author is making money by selling ads)? What kind of ads are displayed? (Ex. does a website on nutrition have ads for diet pills?)

Taking a good look at a website can offer the viewer a lot of information.

Website domains - the website address can reveal information as well. Here are the most common top-level domains:

.com - means commercial, this is most common domain and ranges from businesses to reliable organizations

.gov - a government website, presumably more reliable

.edu - an educational institution

.net - a network

.org - an organization that isn't a company