CRAAP Crib Notes

Here are a few tips, for during and after the search, that will facilitate your CRAAP testing of your search results. These are tips for the internet as tips for database research were covered in the previous section. We’ll reference Google as our search engine, but the majority of tips and tricks are search engine agnostic and will work with other engines.

CURRENCY

While you can go through tools and limit by a date range, a quicker way to narrow your results in terms of currency is to use “after:<year>”

childhood cancer rates in Canada = 16 900 000

childhood cancer rates in Canada after:2015 = 6 420 000

RELEVANCE

Much of relevance is based on comparison and relies on a solid search string. Make sure you have gathered a good number of sources to compare and contrast for relevance to your topic. Remember: what might be a relevant source for one academic assignment may not be appropriate for another.

AUTHORITY

As you search, you can direct your search engine to return results from only specific sites. Match the Google trick with how it limits to the type of site it returns.

After your get your results:

Googling the author(s) of your results is the quickest way to determine authority. Are they affiliated with a respectable institution e.g., research institute, government body, post-secondary institution?

Be careful here! Authors sometimes provide links to CVs | Resumes that may look authoritative, but are a creation of the author’s imagination. Make sure to verify the author independently.

ACCURACY

As with Relevance, your search string is key here. Post-search you will need to look for typos, spelling mistakes, and | or grammatical errors. Most academic sources go through substantial review and should be error-free.

PURPOSE

Look for an About section on the site. Ensure the goal of the site is not to sell something  and | or does not spout propaganda.