Biomedical Science

Once you’ve found a piece of information, you will be expected to judge its reliability and suitability to be used in an academic assignment. 

This page outlines the key things to think about when evaluating information - you can also see our Canvas unit on Finding & Evaluating Information for further detail.

An important part of your research is identifying the key sources on your topic. Resources must be reliable, relevant to answering the question of your essay or dissertation, and support your arguments. 

Use the CRAAP (Currency, Relevance, Accuracy, Authority, Purpose) test to evaluate the sources you have located, and ask yourself the following questions: 

Currency - The timeliness of the information

• When was the source published or posted? Has it been updated or revised since?
• Does your topic require current information? Or will older sources work just as well? 

Relevance - The importance of the information for your needs

• Does the source relate to your topic? Does it answer your question?
• Is the information at the appropriate level? Who is the intended audience? 
• Are you comfortable citing this?

Accuracy - The reliability of the content

• Where does it come from? Is it reliable? Is it supported by evidence? 
• Has the information been reviewed or refereed? 
• Does the tone seem biased or unbiased? 

Authority - The source of the information

• Who is the author or publisher of the source?
• What are their credentials? Are they qualified to write on the topic? 
• Is the source trustworthy? Is there contact information? Email address? Publisher? 
• If it is a website, what is the source? For example: government (.gov), university (.ac), organisation (.org)? 

Purpose - The reason for the information

• What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, or teach, or sell, or promote? 
• Is it fact, opinion or propaganda?
• Does the information appear objective and impartial?