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BMS263 Research Skills Guide: Evaluating information

An online tutorial to help with Assessment One in BMS263

Evaluating all resources - The CRAP test

One way to evaluate resources you want to use in your assessments is to use the CRAP Test. You can use this for all types of resources. 

Criteria Ask Yourself Example
Currency
  • When was the information published?
  • Does currency matter for this topic?
  • Is it current enough for your topic?
  • When was the webpage last updated?

Topic: History of educational theories (older resources might be appropriate)

vs

Topic: Social media in health care (older resources might not be appropriate)
Reliability
  • Who published the information?
  • Is the source reputable? Is it peer reviewed?
  • Does the creator provide references and are those references credible?
  • Are there spelling, grammar or typographical errors?

A satirical news website (eg. Betoota Advocate)

vs

A not-for-profit media group sourcing content from academics and researchers (eg. The Conversation)
Authority
  • Who is the creator or author? Sources without an author may be less credible
  • What are their qualifications, affiliations and experience?
  • Are they an expert in the field?

A blog article written by a self-appointed and so-called expert 

vs

A peer-reviewed article written by a team of university academics
Purpose
  • Why was the information published and who is the intended audience?
  • Is the creator trying to sell, inform, entertain, persuade?
  • Is it fact or opinion?
  • Is it biased or balanced?

A webpage on diabetes from a pharmacy company that produces drugs to treat diabetes. (The company might have a vested interest.)

vs

Diabetes information from a government website such as the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare (AIHW). (They have no vested interest.)

 

Evaluating articles - Peer review

You are probably well aware of the Peer Review process by now. Articles published in peer-reviewed (refereed) journals have been through a formal approval process, which checks that the article is accurate, well-researched, and contributes to the body of knowledge in the field.

How do you know if an article is peer-reviewed?

  • You can often use refiners in Primo Search and databases to limit your search results to peer-reviewed articles.
  • Another way to check if a journal is peer-reviewed is to check its editorial information on its website.
  • But the best way to check or confirm that a journal is peer-reviewed is to use Ulrichsweb Global Periodicals Directory.

For more information, please see our Peer review video.

Evaluating internet resources - Check the domain

If you evaluating websites and webpages, the website domain provides you a hint as to the reliability of the website.

.edu (educational institution)

.gov (government)

 These are more likely to be reliable and unbiased.

.org (non-profit organisation)

.asn (non-commercial organisation)

 Sometimes these organisations may show a bias toward one side of a topic.

.com (commercial site)

.net (network)

Critically evaluate these sites as they may be unreliable.

 

Evaluating information activity

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