The TRAAP Test is a list of questions to help you evaluate the information you find. Different criteria will be more or less important depending on your situation or need.
Evaluation Criteria
Timeliness
- When was the information published?
- Does the age of the information affect the accuracy?
- Is there a more recent version that supports or refutes the original?
- Are the links functional?
Relevance
- Who is the intended audience?
- Is it pitched at a scholarly audience?
- Have you looked at a variety of similar sources before selecting this one?
- Would you be comfortable citing this source?
Authority
- Where did the information come from?
- Is the author / publisher / sponsor identified?
- Can their credentials be verified?
- Has the source been cited in other research?
- Do you trust the source?
Accuracy
- Can the information be verified in another reliable sourced?
- Does the research contain sufficient evidence to back it up?
- Has it been through a peer-review process?
- Are there spelling or grammatical errors?
Purpose
- Why was this information created?
- Does it seek to inform, provide facts, to sell, or to persuade you of something?
- Is there evidence of political, religious, institutional, or personal biases?
- Is the information objective and impartial?
The TRAAP test is shared from The Australian National University LibGuide on Evaluating Sources.
It has been shared here under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
