Skip to Main Content

First Year Inquiry 101

Library resource guide for getting started with research in FYI 101.

Recommended Resources

Find books, articles, movies, and more.

Advanced Search

Other Potential Research Guides of Interest:

Authority & Credibility

An important part of the research process is evaluating sources to ensure they are credible; in this sense, we want to ensure the information they share is accurate and reliable. Another way to understand credibility is to assess how trustworthy a source may be. 

One method we can use to help guide our evaluation process is the CRAAP Test. The following lists a few questions we can ask ourselves to help think about each aspect of the CRAAP test thoroughly. 

Currency: 

  • When was the resource written/published?
  • Is this information up-to-date, or do other sources discredit or update the information given in the resource? If it is not up-to-date, is the information considered foundational to the topic or field of study? 

 

Relevance: 

  • Is the resource at the appropriate level for this project/paper? 
  • Does the resource meet your research needs and goals?

 

Authority:

  • Who is the author/editor? What is their background and expertise? Do they have any potential conflicts of interest or biases in relation to this resource?
  • Who is the publisher/website/journal? What is their general reputation?  Who owns or funds the publisher/website/journal?

 

Accuracy: 

  • Is there information you can fact-check (in-text citations, references list, data and figures, links to other materials)? 
  • Are sources and/or analyses provided for any data and figures included in the resource?

 

Purpose: 

  • What was the author’s purpose in writing this resource?
  • Are there any biases or conflicts of interest we should be aware of?
  • What, if any, is the context of the resource?

  • What, if any, is the context of the resource?
  • What was the author’s purpose in writing this resource?

Another important aspect to consider while evaluating sources is the missing information, so sometimes we add an S to the end of the CRAAP Test: 
 

Silences: 

  • What gaps or silences are there in this source? What aspects or considerations are not included within this piece?
  • What other information, voices, or perspectives would you like to see on this topic?

These Silences can help us pull different sources together in conversation, so that they fill the gaps within other sources. 

Reminder: Lateral Reading Techniques are critical to ensuring accurate credibility evaluations.

Turning to materials and sources outside of the source you are evaluating to learn more and cross-examine the content of the source in question. Lateral reading can be especially helpful during the Currency, Authority, and Accuracy steps of the CRAAP test. 

The third step of the CRAAP Test asks us to critically review the authority of the source by taking a closer look at the author(s) and publisher(s). When we are digging into the background of the authors and publishers, it is important to remember that there is rarely only one sole authority on a topic and only one perspective -- so it is critical to balance different kinds of authority within our own academic work by using sources that incorporate multiple kinds of authority. 

You could argue that there are countless different kinds of authority, but the different authorities tend to fall into three major categories: 

Scholarly: expertise gained through education/training, publications, and academic credentials

Example: A research article about the impact of Greek life on college students' sense of community and belonging, published in a peer-reviewed Education journal by 2 economics professors and 1 sociology professor from three different universities.  

Embodied: expertise drawn from the individual's identities

Example: A presentation about inclusive campus community practices given at an academic conference about student engagement by a panel of speakers who identify as disabled. 

Experiential: expertise gathered from the experiences the individual went through

Example: A college newspaper article that interviews five students about the benefits and challenges of living in a new cooperative living house.

There are many other acronyms and tools we can use to guide us through evaluating sources beyond the CRAAP Test. Others include:

Overall, each one will ask you to take a critical look at WHERE the information is coming from, WHO is sharing the information with you, and WHY the source was written. There is not one "best" resource to turn to -- as long as you are including these general aspects in your evaluation process, the exact way you do so doesn't matter.