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NRS160 Research Skills Guide: The CRAP Test

The CRAP Test - a Tool for Evaluating Information Resources

The CRAP Test is a way of evaluating information resources to determine whether they're current, reliable, authoritative, and scholarly. It can be applied to any resources, but is particularly useful in evaluating Internet resources. (You can use it to evaluate journal articles, but for an extra way of evaluating journal articles, see the Peer Review page in this guide.)

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.)

Activity 5: Practising the CRAP test

Have a go at applying the CRAP Test to these resources.

Make a note of whether you think each one is a suitable scholarly resource.

What makes you think the resource is appropriate or not? 

Evaluate information

Use this simple test to check if your resources are appropriate and relevant for use in your assessments.

Evaluate internet resources

The website domain provides you a hint as to the reliability of the website at which you are looking.

.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.

 

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