Date
To start the DAPPR test, you will score your source on a scale of 1-3 based on the above set of criteria. It’s important to check when your source was published. The information in many sources can become out of date after about 5 years, or sometimes even sooner. If you cannot find a date that your information was published (if you're using a website, look for something that says when the website was last updated), you should automatically give your source a 0 for the date.
Examples
When looking at the date of your source, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions.
- Is this source current enough for your topic? Some topics need very up to date information.
For example, take a look at this article. Can you find when it was published? Does information about COVID-19 published at this date seem up-to-date enough for you to trust? - If the source is online, has the information been updated recently?
Click on this link to see if you can find the last date this information was published. Does this date reassure you? Why or why not?
A Note
One thing to think about is whether the information you are looking at needs to be up-to-date. Sometimes historical topics don't require using extremely up-to-date information. For example, if you were researching United States colonial history, you would not necessarily need to use sources from the past 5 years, because it's a historical topic. If you found a source from 1985 on this topic, you could give this source a score of 2 on the DAPPR test instead of 1.
However, for most other (non-historical) topics it's important to have information that is up-to-date.