Industrial Design: Checklists: Evaluating information

CRAAP Test involves a series of questions designed to help students evaluate online information to determine if they should use the information for class projects, papers, or presentations.

• Currency 
  the timeliness of the information / when was it published?
  Is there an older version which is just as relevant?
• Reliability
  How does the information feeds your needs / is it important to your research? 
• Authority 
  The source of the information / who are the authors / what are their credentials ?
• Accuracy
  Reliability and correctness of the information / where is the evidence / can the accuracy be verified?
• Purpose 
  Motive? Why was this written? To inform? Teach? Sell? Entertain? Is the point of view objective or impartial?

IMVAIN is a tool for evaluating sources of news articles

• Independent

Do they stand to gain anything (personal interests) from supporting this article? If so, identify which source(s), what they stand to gain, and why?

• Multiple Sources

Are there other sources saying the same thing?

Are there other sources disputing what is being said?

If there is only one source, is there a good reason?

If there are two or more sources, do they seem to have aligned interests in a particular outcome of the story. For example, are they related (e.g. familial relations, employer-employee) or do they have aligned political, religious, legal, or other interests? Explain your answer.

• Verify

Are there instances when sources provided information supporting the main claims and provided evidence to support their information?

Are there instances when sources provided information supporting the main claims and did not provide evidence to support their information.

• Authoritative

Do(es) the source(s) have the expertise to back up what they say and give their comments greater weight?

How do they know what they know? If they were not personally there, where did they get their knowledge from?

• Informed

Is this source well-informed about the specific news topic e.g. as an eye-witness? If so, explain what makes them informed.

How do they know what they know? If they were not personally there, where did they get their knowledge from?

• Named source

Can you find the original source(s) mentioned in the article by searching online? If so, do they match the way they are characterised in the article? If you cannot find them, how does this impact your rating of their reliability?

How are the sources characterised? Is this adequate?

Are there any claims from anonymous people/companies? If so, how does this impact the reliability of their evidence?

• Who - Who says?
• What - What I don't know?
• When - When was it published?
• Where - Where are the sources?
• Why -  Why was this written?
• How - How do they know?