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Evaluating information

Learn why it’s important to evaluate your sources, how to use the CRAAP Test and SIFT process, and how to respectfully assess information about Indigenous peoples and knowledges.

It can be tricky to know if your sources (like journal articles, websites, videos, and news) are reliable. You can use the CRAAP Test to evaluate scholarly and AI content, the SIFT tool for news and social media and the Indigenous Knowledges Attribution Tree to help you make decisions about whether information is right for your assessment.

Why should I evaluate my sources?

  • Not everything posted online or published in an article is accurate.
  • Your teachers want you to use reliable sources.
  • Good sources help you develop thinking skills and get better marks.

What is the CRAAP Test?

The CRAAP Test is designed to help you evaluate scholarly or academic information sources, like journal articles and books, as well as websites or online information like government documents.

Use the CRAAP test questions to think critically about the different types of information to use in your assignments.

The CRAAP Test checklist

  • When was the information published or posted?
  • Has it been updated (webpage)?
  • Do you need recent information, or can you use older resources?

  • Does the information fit your topic or answer your question?
  • Who is the audience? Is it too easy or too hard to understand? It might not be aimed at the right level for your assessment.
  • Is it peer-reviewed?

  • Who is the author or publisher? What are their qualifications?
  • Where do they work? Who do they work for? Generally, authors should work for a university or research centre.
  • For a webpage:
    • Is the author recorded or is the organisation well known? Like a government department or professional organisation.
    • Does the site look professional and do all the links work?
  • Is there a lot of advertising?
  • Check the URL for webpages. Is the site commercial (.com), government (.gov) or educational (.edu)?

  • Is it supported by reliable facts or statistics? References?
  • Does the evidence match the author's findings or claims?
  • Can you double check the evidence from other sources or your own knowledge?
  • Can you spot spelling, grammar or citation errors?

  • Why was it written? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?
  • Is the work fact, opinion or propaganda?
  • Does it contain extreme viewpoints? Is it biased?
  • Does it contain emotional or derogatory language?
  • Does the author tell you about biases, conflicts of interest or funding for the research or study that might influence their findings?
  • Is there advertising alongside the information?

Evaluating AI-generated material

You can use a modified version of the CRAAP Test to evaluate AI-generated material before using AI tools in your assessments. If you want to learn more about using AI safely at university, check out the Generative artificial intelligence: Use at University guide.

Why should I evaluate AI-generated material?

  • Recognise when AI output is misleading or incorrect.
  • Understand the risks and how to avoid them.
  • Avoid losing marks for obvious mistakes.
  • Spot fake news, deep fakes and misleading information.

Evaluate AI outputs

Generative AI tools are not trained every day. How old is the training data used for this tool?

  • Has the training data been updated recently? If not, how does it affect the value of the output?
  • Does this type of information get updated? Does this matter for your topic?

Is there likely to be more recent information available elsewhere in scholarly sources, e.g. a journal article or book?  

The response given also depends on the prompts that you input and your basic understanding of the topic.

  • Is the output relevant to your assignment, or does it give basic definitions of concepts that will help you understand the topic? Is there likely to be better information elsewhere?
  • GenAI output can often be very general and lack in-depth details. How detailed is the output?
  • Is this output aimed at the right audience, e.g. an academic audience vs beginners or the public?

Typically, generative AI tools will not disclose the sources of information in the output.

  • Who wrote it? What are their qualifications? Where do they work?
  • Are they likely to have a good understanding of this field?
  • Is the information in the original source peer-reviewed?

GenAI output is frequently inaccurate, biased, or completely incorrect.

  • Is the information reliable? Are there any obvious errors or missing facts?
  • Do the findings match the data?
  • Is there any bias? Have all sides been considered?
  • Can you find the original source? Can you verify the information given by the GenAI tool?
  • References given to support the output are often inaccurate or completely made up. Can you find the original in QuickSearch or Google Scholar?
  • Would it be better to use other sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles or books?

AI tools are only as accurate as their training data, which may have biases that influence the output generated.

  • What is the main aim or purpose of the GenAI tool being used?
  • Is there a statement about their aims that you can read?
  • Where did the training data come from?
  • Is there any obvious bias?

Evaluating news, blogs and social media

While scholarly sources go through a thorough review process, news (including newspaper articles, news blogs, TV news and social media posts) can be written and posted online very quickly and without being fact checked. Information about the publisher, date and original source are often missing or misleading.

What is the SIFT evaluation process?

The SIFT evaluation process offers quick, practical actions for evaluating social media and news when key information (such as the original author, date, and references) can be missing or easily faked. 

Why use SIFT?

  • Save time by focusing on the facts you can easily trace and verify.  
  • Recognise when to use scholarly sources over news or social media.
  • Get better marks by using the right sources for your assessment.
  • Spot fake news or misleading information.
  • Make smarter decisions based on facts, not opinions.

Can I still use the CRAAP test for news and social media?

You can absolutely use the CRAAP Test for news and social media if you prefer. 

SIFT

When reading a social media post, the first and easiest step to take first is to stop. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I know the source of the information?
  • Am I confident the information is accurate?

If the answer to either question is no, progress to the next step in the SIFT process.

Take a minute to look into the source of the information. Try to understand the expertise and agenda of the source.

If you are unsure about the claims made in the original source, try to find other reports on the same event.

  • Find the original sources cited by the post.
  • Try to find transcripts or other reports of any quotes used. Look at the original context.
  • Check to see if the quote or event was fairly represented

Evaluating Indigenous Knowledges

Not all sources of information can be assessed in the same way. While there are clear categories to help check that a scholarly source is trustworthy, many other types of information will not fit neatly into these checklists. One example of this is knowing how to evaluate information about Indigenous Peoples and Knowledges.  

Why should I evaluate Indigenous Knowledges?

  • Know how to find a variety of information sources depending on your topic.
  • Show that you are aware of biases.
  • Know how acknowledge Indigenous Knowledges respectfully.
  • Be respectful of other cultures and ways of being.  

Faulkhead et al. (2023) from the Indigenous Archive Collective have released the Indigenous Referencing Guidance for Indigenous Knowledges toolkit to help you make decisions about whether information is right for your assessment.