LAB - Information Retrieval Toolkit

This acronym will help you evaluate the credibility and reliability of a source you are thinking of you using.  

• Currency - is the source up-to-date? 
• Relevance - is the source relevant to your research?
• Authority - who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field? Where is the source published? 
• Accuracy - is the source supported by evidence? Are the claims backed up by references?  
• Purpose - what was the motive behind publishing this source? 

The CRAAP test was developed by librarians at CSU Chico. Link to the original test and a set of questions that will help with the evaluation. 

You can think of peer review as a "stamp of approval" from academic experts. When an article is published in a peer-reviewed journal, you'll know that experts in the relevant field have read the article and, independent of their own particular opinions, verified it to meet a high standard of scholarship. Peer reviewed journals are occasionally also called scholarly or refereed journals depending on the publisher.

Almost all library databases including Primo have a box or a tab that allows you to limit your search results to peer reviewed journals. Please note peer review journals also publish other types of articles, for example editorials and commentaries which are not peer reviewed.