 In this section, I'll be discussing a tool for evaluating information found on websites. When relying on web searching for finding health information, it is important to proceed with caution. I'm sure you've run across websites that look sketchy or come from questionable sources. And while resources like Reddit, Buzzfeed, or Yahoo Answers may be great places to go for casual information during off hours, as a professional in the health sciences field, it is vital to use current high quality resources written by experts in the field. This becomes especially true when you are sharing information that you find with colleagues or with clients, or when you are using this information to inform policies or practice. For this lecture, we will focus on evaluating health information found on the internet, focusing on using a method that evaluates currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose, otherwise known as the CRAP method. We'll also be looking at the HON code, or health information on the net, as a shortcut for quickly identifying quality sources for health information. In this section, I'll be discussing a tool for evaluating information found in websites. One effective tool to test the quality of information you find online is the CRAP test created by librarians at CSU Chico. The CRAP test helps determine the quality of information. CRAP stands for the five main evaluation criteria we use to judge a source, currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. The first criteria is currency. It refers to the timeliness of information or date the article was posted or when a website was last updated. Another element to consider is whether or not your topic requires current information. Relevance asks, does the information fit your need? Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Who is the intended audience? Moreover, relevance also asks whether the information is written at an appropriate level for your needs, not too elementary or too advanced. Have you scanned a variety of sources before determining this is the one you'll use? Would you be comfortable citing this source in your research paper? Authority wants to know who wrote and published the article. What are the author's credentials and institutional affiliation? Ask yourself whether the author is qualified to write on the topic. Does the author provide content information such as publisher or an email address? Accuracy asks you to consider the reliability of the content. Is the information in the document supported by evidence? Does the author use academic sources to cite claims? Has the information been peer reviewed? Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion? And are there spelling, grammar, or typographical errors? Lastly, consider the purpose of the article. Why was it written? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain, or persuade? Do the authors or sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? What goals did the author wish to accomplish? Does the author or publisher consider both sides of an argument or idea? Or is there bias towards one viewpoint? Ask yourself whether that point of view appears objective and impartial. Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? This last slide shows an example of a scoping review that used the CRAP test to evaluate the quality of online videos. Going through each website that you find on the Internet and evaluating it for currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and purpose can be time-consuming. Luckily, when it comes to health information online, there is a non-profit organization called the Health on the Net Foundation, or HON Foundation, that evaluates health websites based on eight standards. You can see that their standards are similar to the CRAP method, but are a little more tailored to health information. HON's eight standards assess whether the website authors are credible, the information on the website supports a doctor-patient relationship, the website respects privacy of visitors, the site cites its sources and backs up claims with evidence, it provides reliable contact information, discloses funding sources, and clearly differentiates advertisements from informational content throughout the website. A website must apply to be evaluated by the HON Foundation, and if the foundation determines that the information on the site is accurate and reliable, the website is certified and marked with a HON code. Consumer health websites like Medline Plus, for example, will display their HON code on their About Us page or at the bottom of their homepage. Also, you can use a specific search engine designed by the HON Foundation to search for health websites that have been certified. One thing to keep in mind, however, is since a website has to apply to be certified by the HON Foundation, not all websites out there will have been evaluated by this organization. If you see the HON code on a website, you can breathe a sigh of relief and feel fairly safe about using information from it. If there is no HON code, it is up to you to use the CRAP test and determine the site's validity yourself.