Title: Section 1.4: Evaluation: Quality of information
Course: MSc level academic and professional (information) skills > Section: Part 1. Information skills, Plagiarism and Referencing

Introduction to evaluating the quantity and quality of information

When you do a search you get results. In this section you will take a look at the quantity of your search results and learn how to change that quantity for the better. However, the amount of results is not the only thing you have to evaluate when you did a search. You also have to take a look at the quality of your search results. Is the information in your results relevant for your research question and is the information reliable?

Learning objectives

In this section you learn how to evaluate the quantity and the quality of your results.

After this section you will be able to:

- Evaluate your results and recognize different type of possible problems with your results (too much noise, too few results etc).
- Apply different strategies to change your search depending on your evaluation.
- Evaluate the content of your results on relevance for your search question.
- Apply the CRAAP test for evaluating websites.
- Recognize the different criteria to evaluate scientific information and apply these criteria.

Exercise: Click here

Evaluating a website: CRAAP

Once you are satisfied with the amount of results you found, it's time to take a look at the  quality of the information. There are different types of information in different sources. To make a good evaluation, you have to use the right tools.

The CRAAP test is a good tool to evaltuate a website.

CRAAP criteria | Aspects
Currency
- When was the information published or placed online?
- Has the information or source been updated or revised?
- Is the information still actual for your research topic?
- Are all the hyperlinks still functional?
Relevance
- Is the information related to your research subject?
- What type of audience is the source aimed at (e.g. parents, scientists, students)?
- Did you look through several sources before selecting this one?
- Does the source (partly) answer research questions of yours?
Authority
- What author or organization is behind the source?
- Where does the author work? What kind of organization(s) is he/she affiliated with?
- Is the author a researcher, a teacher or student? Is he/she an expert of the topic? What are his/her qualifications or credentials?
- Is there mention of contact information of the author or organization?
Accuracy
- How did the authors acquire the information?
- Are there references to other (scientific) sources?
- Is there sufficient evidence for the source’s conclusion?
- Is the source referenced by other, or (peer-)reviewed?
- Does the source seem objective and unbiased?
- Is the source’s lay-out messy, or are there errors in the text?
Purpose
- What is the goal of this source or information?
- Does the author/organization clearly state the goal of the source?
- Is the source’s purpose to inform, to persuade, to sell, to entertain?
- Is de information factual, subjective, or even propaganda?

Evaluating scientific information

Websites can be assessed by using the CRAAP. To evaluate scientific information we need to look a little deeper.

Take a look at the following criteria for assessing scientific information:

Use-oriented criteria

- relevance to the problem and the target;
- do you understand the language in which the information is given;
- is the year of publication suitable for the goal.

If you consider it to be useful after this, study the article's 'body' and if needed the intro.

Criteria based on the general content

- well argumentend;
- information is displayed accurately and in an objective manner;
- understandable text;
- facts and opinions are well separated;
- based on decent literature study with adequate source references;
- contains good illustrations and diagrams;
- based on decent empirical research.

Criteria about the reputation of the author and the use of the information by others

- reputation of the author (H-index);
- reputation of the journal/congres (impact factor);
- reputation of the publisher;
- reputation of the institute in which the author is employed.
- How ofter is the article cited and was it positive or not?

Exercise: Click here
Exercise 2: Click here

The end of section Evaluating the quantity and quality of information

Here ends the section Evaluating the quantity and quality of information.

In this section you learned how to evaluate the amount of results you get when you do a search and how to adjust your search string accordingly. You also learned to evaluate the quality of information by using for example the CRAAP test.

Evaluating the quantity and the quality of your search results is step 6 in the cycle of systematic searching. Go to one of the other sections to go deeper into the other steps in the search cycle.