The CRAAP Test
Currency
- When it comes to health, you often need current, up-to-date information. Check the website for a copyright date, or 'last updated' date, often at the very bottom of the page.
- Try the links on the page. If many of them are 'broken', it's likely that the page has not been updated or maintained.
Relevance
- Check that the information is relevant to your question. Choose your search terms carefully to retrieve the most relevant results.
- Who is the intended audience of the website? Is the information meant for health consumers (lay people) or health professionals?
Authority
- A good website will provide clear information as to the author/owner of the site and the source of the information. You should be able to find an 'About' link somewhere on the page.
- Legitimate sites often provide contact information.
- The web address can be a clue to authorship: .edu indicates an educational institution and .gov indicates a government website.
Accuracy
- The accuracy of the information can be difficult to determine, but some clues may be a warning sign. Trust your judgement and beware of sites that make health claims that you know to be false or that are debunked by another reliable, trustworthy source.
- Beware of biased or opinionated language.
- Steer clear of websites that are poorly written, full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, or lots of exclamation points.
Purpose
- The purpose of a reliable health information website should be to teach or inform. The information should be objective and impartial.
- Beware of sites whose primary purpose seems to be selling products, entertaining, or sites that are strongly biased or opinionated.
Evaluating Information
Be critical
Additional resources for evaluating the information that you find
- Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly PeriodicalsShows how to evaluate periodicals by looking at their format, intended audience, and appearance.
- Evaluating Web Sites (Cornell University Library)Tips for evaluating the sources you find on the web.
- Evaluating Web ResourcesAn eight-point evaluation checklist from the UC Berkeley Library.
What can the URL tell you?
Who wrote the page? Is he, she, or the authoring institution a qualified authority?
Is it dated? Current, timely?
Is information cited authentic?
Does the page have overall integrity and reliability as a source?
What's the bias?
Could the page or site be ironic, like a satire or a spoof?
If you have questions or reservations, how can you satisfy them?