Making sure you find the right resources is crucial to answering any question, whether it be for a research paper or to make an informed life decision.

The best way to evaluate your sources is to use the CRAP test (currency, reliability, authority, purpose). Before committing to a source, first answer the following:

Currency

When was the text published/updated? Is the content still up-to-date? Does currency matter to this topic? ‘Permaculture’ is a relatively new term, but is based on indigenous agricultural practices. In this case, newer sources (less than five years old) can provide contemporary perspectives, but reliable older sources will still be useful. Consider each carefully.

Reliability

Who is the publisher? Does the author provide credible references for their information? Is the content present professionally (no spelling mistakes, etc.)?

Authority

Who is the author? Are they reputable? What are their qualifications? Permaculture information written by ecologists or horticulturalists is more reliable than garden bloggers. 

Purpose

Is the text aiming to sell, inform, entertain, persuade, etc.? Who is the audience? Is the content factual or an opinion piece? Is there bias? Websites with .com or .net domains may have a commercial stake in their content. Evaluate these sites carefully.

Evaluating Your Search Results

Sometimes it’s hard to evaluate an online source. Algorithms can get in the way of finding the information you need, and results can be missing information such as publication date and author.

Follow these tips from Devar (2019) to ensure better search results:

• Do multiple searches usings different word order or alternate words
• Use different search engines to take advantage of their different algorithms
• Explore beyond the first page – it’s OK, page two doesn’t bite!