Answered By: MRU Library Last Updated: May 10, 2023 Views: 171
Answered By: MRU Library
Last Updated: May 10, 2023 Views: 171
Is the information I found credible?
Librarians have developed many useful acronyms to support you in evaluating information.
Two acronyms that can be particularly helpful are RADAR and APP.
RADAR stands for:
Relevance
Authority
Date
Accuracy
Reason for Creation
When evaluating an information source using RADAR, you can ask the following questions to help in assessing each criterion:
Relevance:
- Does this source fit my topic?
- What is this source's intended audience?
- Is that intended audience appropriate for my use case?
Authority:
- Is/are the creator(s) of this source clearly identified or known to me?
- How important is it in this use case to trust the source's creator(s)?
- If it is important, why should I trust the source's creator(s)?
- Is the source's creator credentialed or an expert in their field?
Date:
- Is the creation or publication date of this source identified or known to me?
- Is this source too old?
Accuracy:
- Do this source's facts "check out"?
- Does the source have references of its own?
Reason for Creation:
- Why was this source made?
- Was this source made to sell a product or service, to inform/educate, to entertain, etc?
APP can also be useful if you need to evaluate a source a bit faster.
APP stands for:
Authority
Purpose
Process
When evaluating an information source using APP, you can ask the following questions to help in assessing each criterion:
Authority:
- Who is the author and what is their expertise to write on the topic?
- Does the publisher seem credible?
Purpose:
- Why was the source created? To entertain, inform, or persuade?
- Who was it written for? Other experts in the field, the general public, etc?
Process:
- How was the source created?
- Where did the author get their ideas?
- Did the source go through peer review or a form of quality control to verify the information is correct?
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