You already know that information comes in a variety of formats, but how do you know if the information presented in a source is accurate? There is no easy way to do this, because there is no single format that is guaranteed to be accurate, and quality information can be found across all formats. After you find a source, you will have to carefully evaluate it to see if its contents are accurate and useful for your assignment.

Take a moment to think about how you evaluate new information in your everyday life. When you encounter new information, what makes it believable? You probably consider what form the information takes, where the information is coming from, who the author or creator is, and when and why the information was published. All of these details are important. The Five W’s are a mnemonic device that can help you remember the essential criteria for evaluating a source. The following chart explains the criteria and the important questions to ask when evaluating an information source.

The 5 Ws
Who?	Who is the author? Does their education or experience qualify them as an authority on your topic? If the author is an institution or organization, what is its stated mission?
What?	What information is provided by this source? Is it relevant and appropriate for your research need? How will you use the information for your assignment?
Where?	Where does the information appear? Is it from a book, a journal, the news media, or some other type of source? Does the scope, depth, and timeliness of the source suit your need? Does the source offer news and opinion, or research and scholarship?
When?	When was the source published or updated? Is the information provided the most current available? If the source is not recent, does it still provide historical context?
Why?	Why has the source been produced? Is the purpose to sell, persuade, entertain, or inform? Is it written for professionals or the general public? Does it show any bias or omissions?

While in college, you will often have to evaluate a source based on its citation in a database. Below are contrasting examples of a scholarly, peer-reviewed citation and a popular magazine citation from an EBSCO database. Suppose you are researching the mental health options for kidnap victims experiencing post-traumatic stress. You can apply Five W’s to the two citations and determine if the sources are appropriate for your research.

Scholarly, peer-reviewed article record:

CRAAP test scholarly view

Scholarly record described

The red boxes highlight the parts of the record that will help you apply the Five W’s.

Who: The authors are hyper-linked and you can see what other topics they've written about. Notice that all of the authors are medical experts affiliated with the Medical College of Pennsylvania.
What: Reading the abstract and the subjects, you can determine that this article is relevant to your topic.
Where: This article was published in a peer-reviewed journal. The publisher of the journal is the American Psychological Association, a trusted organization among psychologists.
When: Highlighted in yellow next to "Source," you'll see the article was published in October 1991.
Why: The purpose of this article is to inform other professionals.

Would you feel comfortable using this article from the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology?

Popular magazine article record:

CRAAP popular source explained

Who: The authors are hyper-linked and you can see what other topics they've written about; they do not have any institutional affiliation and appear to be staff writers.
What: Reading the abstract and subjects, you can see that mental health options are only a minor part of this article and therefore may not be relevant.
Where: This article was published in People magazine, a human interest publication that publishes information on popular culture.
When: Highlighted in yellow next to "Source," you'll see the article was published in July 2013.
Why: People magazine is published to entertain as well as inform.

Would you feel comfortable using this article from People?

Depending on your assignment, some criteria within the 5 W’s will be more important than others. In the example above, the scholarly article was from 1991, but the popular article was from 2013. In this case, the other criteria probably outweigh the second article’s recent publication. Although the 5 W’s are a great tool for evaluation, you should always read your assignment carefully. Often your instructor will require certain types of sources. Make sure you're meeting the assignment requirements!