Most academic sources undergo some form of evaluation before publication to ensure the information provided is authoritative and accurate, such as peer review or editing. However, you still need to determine whether the source you wish to use is the best source to use for your assignments and research.
It is good academic practice to evaluate every source you want to include. The CRAAP test below is a set of questions you can ask yourself to determine the quality and appropriateness of a source.
It is also a good method of identifying whether the source is actually an academic source or not.
The CRAAP test consists of five main criteria that you can use to judge the academic quality of information:
Each criteria encourages you to ask a series of questions of your sources to help you determine if they should play a role in informing your work.
Find out more here: Evaluation Information Sources
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0