GUIDANCE: College and Life Success: Evaluation

How to recognize peer-reviewed journals

Porter Henderson Library, ASU

Evaluating Websites and Other Sources

Consider...

• Who is the author?
• Why was it written -- for what purpose, organization, or audience?
• When was it written?
• Does it include references or a works cited list?

• Who funded the research?

Academic Peer-reviewed journals

characteristics:

--Purpose is for educating

--Articles written by scholars and experts

--Articles are indepth and long

--Language of articles is technical

--Sources are cited

--No advertising

--Graphs, charts and illustrations are used to show research

Mnemonics for Evaluation Criteria 

A mnemonic is a device for helping to remember something. These acronyms/initialisms can help you remember some of the common web evaluation criteria.

• 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where, Why
• AABCC: Accuracy, Authority, Bias, Coverage, Currency
• AARP: Authority, Accuracy, Research, Presentation
• A CRAB: Authority, Currency, Relevance, Accuracy, Bias
• CABIN: Currency, Authority, Bias, Information (content), Navigation
• CARP: Catch & Release or Keep & Eat ~ Currency, Authority, Relevance, Purpose
• CRAAP: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose
• CRUD: Currency, Research Level, Utilitarian, Dialectically Sound
• PAC: Purpose, Authorship, Content
• RADCAB: Relevancy, Appropriateness, Detail, Currency, Authority, Bias
• TRAP: Timeliness, Reliability, Authority, Purpose
• 10 Cs: Content, Credibility, Critical Thinking, Copyright, Citations, Continuity, Censorship, Connectivity, Comparability, Context

From Frontier Nursing University

General Magazine

Characteristics

--Purpose is to entertain

--Written by journalists

--Headlines to attract readers

--Normally no citations included

--About current events and culture

--Written for the general public