All websites end with an extension. What is at the end of the website you want to use for research?  The extensions at the end of websites can say a lot about the nature and content of the website.

• .org: may have reliable information, but may have biased or overtly political information as a result of their advocacy.
• .com and .net: may have reliable information. As an example, nearly all news networks (CNN, ABC, Fox News, HuffPo, WaPo) all end in .com. At the end of the day, these domains are also commercial in nature, and must make money somehow (products, paid/premium subscriptions, and/or ads).
• .gov and .mil: generally reliable information: facts, dates, statistics, and other useful information for informing government policy as well as for transparency.
• .edu: may have reliable information, but since universities have users of all levels (scholars, faculty, staff and students), the authority should be checked carefully.

So .... how can we know that the website we want to use is a reliable and respectable source of information? Watch the video on the left and read on.

The CRAAP test is a website evaluation standard devised at the Cal-State Chico Library system to help evaluate website credibility.

• Currency: the timeliness of the information
• Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs
• Authority: the source of the information
• Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content
• Purpose: the reason the information exists

More details in PDF.

You can get answers to many CRAAP criteria if you check the following immediately:

• The “About” page: will tell you who or what the authorship of the website is and sometimes what their purpose might be.
• Copyright / hosting information: can sometimes be found at or near the bottom of the page. This can give you information about currency with a copyright year or last date of updating. 
• Be sure to read Disclaimer / Legal info links if available. This can also give further information about accuracy, purpose, and authority.

ACTIVITY: Does your website pass or fail the CRAAP test: Using what you know about CRAAP, try evaluating the following websites and comment on their credibility.  For paired websites that have similar content, determine which one is more credible and determine why that might be.

a.) http://city-mankato.us/ and https://www.mankatomn.gov/

b.) http://globalissues.org                                                        

c.)  https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/ and https://www.livestrong.com/cat/nutrition