Credit: Video summarizing the CRAAP Test from Vancouver Island University Library.
The CRAAP Test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) is a list of criteria to help you evaluate websites.
Currency - the timeliness of the information
Relevance - the importance of the information for your needs
Authority - the source of the information
Accuracy - the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content
Purpose - the reason the information exists
When you are researching for an assignment, websites can be a good way to obtain information. However, websites can also contain personal opinions and misinformation. All information you gather from websites should undergo some scrutiny to determine if the information presented is accurate and current.
Printed materials, like books and journals, go through a formal evaluative and editorial process before they are published. The Internet has removed the restrictions and editorial process for print materials and therefore anyone can publish a website. To ensure the websites you use as information sources are acceptable, you should ask questions about those websites.
One of the first things to look at when evaluating a website is the URL which can tell you about the website's author, audience, purpose, and country of origin. The URL is the address you type to access a website. The domain suffix is at the end of the domain name and can offer insight into the type of organization. Generally, looking at just the domain will not give you enough information to determine if a source is reliable. You will need to do additional analysis using lateral reading.
Internet Domain Suffixes
Use caution when Wikipedia: Entries from Wikipedia should not be cited in your research paper. It can be a good place to learn preliminary information about your topic, which you should then verify elsewhere. Make use of the bibliographic citations in Wikipedia articles.