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Evaluating Sources: Is It Reliable?

Learn to evaluate your sources of information to ensure you use credible sources
The questions on this page should help you explain why a particular source is reliable and a good fit for your research project.

 

Not every source you find is trustworthy or useful. Before incorporating a source into your work, it’s essential to pause and evaluate it carefully. There are many evaluation methods—ABCs, the SIFT method, the 5 Ws, CARS, and the CRAAP Test. All serve the same purpose: guiding you through the process of deciding whether a source is reliable. Choose one you can remember, and apply it consistently to every potential source.

Quick Guide

When you encounter any kind of source, consider:

  1. Currency - When was it written? Has it been updated?
  2. Relevance - How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
  3. Authority - Who is the author? What is their point of view? 
  4. Accuracy - Has the source been reviewed? Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?
  5. Purpose - Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience? Where was it published? In what medium?

In-Depth Guide: CRAAP Explained & Evaluating AI Content

Currency

  • When was the source first published?
  • What version or edition of the source are you consulting?
    • Are there differences in editions, such as new introductions or footnotes?
    • If the publication is online, when was it last updated?
  • What has changed in your field of study since the publication date? 

Relevance

  • How is it relevant to your research?
    • Does it directly address your topic?
    • Does it answer one or more of your research questions?
    • Is it information you already have?
  • What is the scope of coverage?
    • Is it a general overview or an in-depth analysis?
    • Does the scope match your own information needs?
    • Is the time period and geographic region relevant to your research?

Authority

  • Who is the author? What are their qualifications?
  • What else has the author written?
  • In which communities and contexts does the author have expertise?
    • Does the author represent a particular set of world views? 
    • Do they represent specific gender, sexual, racial, political, social and/or cultural orientations?
    • Do they privilege some sources of authority over others?
    • Do they have a formal role in a particular institution (e.g. a professor at Berkeley)? 

Accuracy

  • Has the source been reviewed?
  • Can it be verified in other sources?
  • Did they cite their sources?
    • If not, do you have any other means to verify the reliability of their claims?
  • Who do they cite?
    • Is the author affiliated with any of the authors they're citing?
    • Are the cited authors part of a particular academic movement or school of thought?
  • Look closely at the quotations and paraphrases from other sources:
    • Did they appropriately represent the context of their cited sources?
    • Did they ignore any important elements from their cited sources?
    • Are they cherry-picking facts to support their own arguments?
    • Did they appropriately cite ideas that were not their own?

Purpose

  • Why was this source created?
    • Does it have an economic value for the author or publisher? 
    • Is it an educational resource? Persuasive?
      • What (research) questions does it attempt to answer?
      • Does it strive to be objective?
    • Does it fill any other personal, professional, or societal needs?
  • Who is the intended audience?
    • Is it for scholars?
    • Is it for a general audience?
  • Where was it published?
    • Was it published in a scholarly publication, such as an academic journal?
    • Who was the publisher? Was it a university press?
    • Was it formally peer-reviewed?​
  • Does the publication have a particular editorial position?
    • Is it generally thought to be a conservative or progressive outlet?
    • Is the publication sponsored by any other companies or organizations? Do the sponsors have particular biases?
  • Were there any apparent barriers to publication?
    • Was it self-published?
    • Were there outside editors or reviewers?
  • In what medium?
    • Was it published online or in print? Both?
    • Is it a blog post? A YouTube video? A TV episode? An article from a print magazine?
      • What does the medium tell you about the intended audience? 
      • What does the medium tell you about the purpose of the piece?

Evaluating AI content:

  • Verify everything: AI output can sound confident, but these tools can make up (“hallucinate”) or misrepresent information, draw false conclusions, make major mistakes and generate fake sources 
  • AI doesn’t “understand” the way humans do; these models lack real-world experience and context, so they don’t easily handle irony, humor and complex metaphors 
  • Don’t just read AI-generated summaries; take time to read original articles and understand detailed points and context 
  • Be aware that many of today’s AI tools are trained on information up to a certain date and may not have access to recent events or new discoveries 
  • Challenge AI responses and require the AI to justify its output by citing sources and data 
  • Beware of biased AI output 
  • Guard against overreliance on AI; challenge yourself to learn and exercise your mental muscles 

Finding Information to Help You Evaluate

To find out more about an author: 

Google the author's name or dig deeper in the library's biographical databases.

To find scholarly sources: 

When searching library article databases, look for a checkbox to narrow your results to Scholarly, Peer Reviewed or Peer Refereed publications.

To evaluate a source's critical reception: 

Check in the library's article databases to find reviews of the source in order to get a sense of how it was received in the popular and scholarly press.

To evaluate web sources: 

The internet is a great place to find both scholarly and popular sources, but it's especially important to ask questions about authorship and publication when you're evaluating online resources. If it's unclear who exactly created or published certain works online, look for About pages on the site for more information about the authorship, or search for exact quotations from the text in Google (using quotation marks) to see if you can find other places where the work has been published.

Use lateral reading to see what others say about your source:

The CRAAP Test is a solid starting point, but the site you’re evaluating isn’t always the best place to verify authority, accuracy, or point of view. Authors and organizations can misrepresent themselves, and sites that look professional may be promoting an agenda.

Lateral reading means stepping outside the source. Open a new tab and search for information about the author, organization, or publication. By reading across multiple sources—not just down the page in front of you—you can see what others are saying and gather outside evidence.

This practice strengthens your evaluation, helps confirm credibility, and gives you a clearer sense of whether a source deserves a place in your research.

For more information on lateral reading, check out our Web Source Evaluation page.