Skip to Main Content

Psychology Research Guide

Evaluate Sources

As researchers, it's important to make sure that the sources you use for your research are reliable and appropriate. To do this, you can use the PARCA test. This stands for Purpose, Authority, Relevance, Currency, and Accuracy.

Use the PARCA test:
1.    Purpose – why does this resource exist? 
2.    Authority – who created this resource?
3.    Relevance – does the resource meet your needs?
4.    Currency – when was the resource published? Has the information in it changed?
5.    Accuracy – is the information in the resource reliable and trustworthy?

By asking yourself questions related to each of these criteria, you can evaluate a source and decide if it's a good fit for your research. Keep in mind that the answers to these questions won't always determine if a source is suitable or not, but they can help you determine how to use it in your research.

To see the video transcript, click on this link to the video on Youtube, and click on the three dots underneath the video. Then, click "show transcript".