What Percent is Considered a Good Source? It's More Than a Number

October 28, 2025 •

5 min read

According to the Food and Drug Administration, a food product with 10-19% of the Daily Value for a nutrient is deemed a 'good source'. While this percentage offers a clear metric for packaged foods, determining what percent is considered a good source in academic research or online information is far more complex, relying on critical evaluation rather than a simple numerical value. This guide will explore the different meanings of 'good source' and equip you with the skills to assess reliability in any context.

Quick Summary

This article clarifies the term 'good source' across different domains, from nutritional labels to academic research. It provides a detailed breakdown of the CRAAP test and other techniques used by researchers and librarians to evaluate information, including methods for detecting bias.

Key Points

No Single Percentage: The concept of a 'good source' is not defined by a single percentage outside of specific contexts like nutritional facts.
Use the CRAAP Test: To evaluate source credibility, use the CRAAP test, which stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.
Prioritize Scholarly Sources: For in-depth research, scholarly sources are preferred as they are written by experts and undergo peer review, unlike popular sources.
Check for Peer Review and Citations: Publication in a peer-reviewed journal and the inclusion of proper citations are strong indicators of a reliable source.
Identify and Acknowledge Bias: All sources have some bias. A critical thinker identifies potential biases from the author or publisher and compares information across multiple sources.
Evaluate Objectivity: A good source presents information neutrally and supports claims with verifiable evidence, rather than appealing to emotions or pushing a specific agenda.
Lateral Reading is Key: Evaluate an unfamiliar online source by leaving it and checking what other, more established sources say about it.

The Misconception of a Single Percentage

When you hear the term 'good source,' a simple percentage may come to mind, particularly in the context of nutritional labels. However, this metric is not universally applicable. In the world of information and research, a source's quality is not defined by a simple numerical value but by a range of qualitative criteria. The internet's vastness makes this distinction more critical than ever, requiring a critical approach to every piece of information encountered.

What 'Percent' Means in Nutrition

On a packaged food's Nutrition Facts label, a quick glance at the Percent Daily Value (%DV) can inform your choices. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets clear guidelines for what constitutes a 'good' or 'high' source of a nutrient.

Good Source: Provides 10-19% of the Daily Value per serving. These foods can contribute positively to your daily nutrient intake.
High Source: Provides 20% or more of the Daily Value per serving. Foods in this category are considered excellent sources of the nutrient.
Low Source: Provides 5% or less of the Daily Value per serving.

This simple percentage system provides a standardized way to compare products and understand their nutritional density at a glance, but it is a narrow application of the term 'good source'.

Evaluating Information: The CRAAP Test Method

For students, researchers, and anyone navigating the information age, a percentage is useless. Instead, librarians developed the CRAAP test, a widely used method for evaluating the credibility of any source, whether it's an academic article or a blog post.

Currency: Is the Information Timely?

Timeliness is critical for many topics, especially those in rapidly evolving fields like technology or medicine. You should ask:

When was the information published or last updated?
Does your topic require the most current information, or are older sources acceptable?

Relevance: Does it Fit Your Needs?

Relevance goes beyond simply matching your topic. You must consider the source's intended audience and its depth. An article written for experts may be too dense for a novice, while one for the general public might lack the required detail. Questions to consider include:

Is the information relevant to your research question?
Who is the intended audience?

Authority: Who is the Author?

Establishing the author's expertise is fundamental to assessing a source's credibility. Credible sources should have an identifiable author or organization with clear credentials. This is especially important for online sources, where authorship is not always apparent. You should investigate:

What are the author's credentials or affiliations?
Are they qualified to write on this topic?
If it's a website, is the domain (.edu, .gov, .org) indicative of a reputable source, remembering that this isn't a guarantee of quality.

Accuracy: Can You Trust the Content?

Accuracy is about the logical soundness and factual correctness of the information. Credible sources back up their claims with evidence and provide citations. To check for accuracy:

Can you verify the information in other, trusted sources?
Are there spelling, grammar, or other errors that would indicate a lack of quality control?
Is the tone objective and neutral, or emotionally charged?

Purpose: What is the Goal?

The purpose of a source reveals its potential biases. The goal might be to inform, persuade, entertain, or sell. Being aware of this helps you interpret the information correctly.

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources: A Comparison

For serious research, understanding the difference between scholarly and popular sources is essential. This distinction is a key qualitative metric for what constitutes a 'good source'.


	Scholarly/Academic Source	Non-scholarly/Popular Source
Purpose	To share research findings and advance academic discourse.	To inform or entertain the general public.
Author	A respected expert, scholar, or researcher in the field.	A journalist or staff writer, not necessarily an expert.
Publisher	University press or professional association.	Commercial publisher or self-published.
Audience	Other scholars, researchers, and university students.	General public.
Content	Formal presentation, discipline-specific terminology, and often includes an abstract.	Casual style, easy to read, may include anecdotes.
References	Always contains a bibliography or works cited list.	Rarely contains citations or uses vague references.

The Role of Peer Review and Citations

The Peer Review Process Explained

Peer review is the gold standard for academic credibility. It is a system where a manuscript is assessed for originality, validity, and significance by independent experts—or peers—in the same field before it is published. This rigorous process helps to catch errors, biases, and inconsistencies, ensuring that only high-quality research is published. When assessing a source, determining if it has been peer-reviewed is a strong indicator of its reliability.

The Importance of Citations

Proper citations serve multiple purposes beyond giving credit; they are the bedrock of academic integrity. They:

Prevent Plagiarism: Citations clearly mark borrowed ideas from original work.
Build Credibility: Referencing established research adds weight to your own arguments.
Promote Further Exploration: They act as a roadmap for readers to trace the origins of information and investigate topics more deeply.

Avoiding Bias: An Essential Skill

Every source has some degree of bias, intentional or not. Your job is to identify and account for it. Bias can manifest in several ways:

Author Bias: An author's personal beliefs, affiliations, or financial interests can influence their perspective.
Publication Bias: Academic journals may show a bias towards publishing studies with positive results over those with null or negative findings, a phenomenon known as the 'file drawer problem'.
Confirmation Bias: You might unconsciously favor information that confirms your existing beliefs.

To avoid bias, compare data across multiple sources from different viewpoints. Lateral reading, or checking what other sites say about a source while reading it, is a powerful technique to contextualize information. A good source strives for objectivity, while a great researcher acknowledges and addresses the inherent biases in all information.

Conclusion: Becoming a Critical Consumer of Information

There is no single 'good' percentage for information in general. A percentage defines a 'good source' only in the very specific context of nutrition labels. In all other scenarios, assessing the quality of a source is a more nuanced, qualitative process. By applying critical thinking skills and tools like the CRAAP test, you can move beyond simple numerical metrics and become a savvy evaluator of information. This ensures that the arguments you build, and the knowledge you gain, are founded on credible, accurate, and reliable sources.

Evaluating Sources: Methods and Examples

Frequently Asked Questions

A scholarly source is typically written by an expert for an academic audience and is peer-reviewed and rigorously cited. A popular source is written by a journalist for the general public, is not peer-reviewed, and uses casual language.

Peer review is an essential quality control step for academic journals. It involves independent experts in the field assessing a manuscript for originality, validity, and significance before publication, thereby ensuring the work is of a high standard.

For a website, you can use the CRAAP test by checking the domain (.gov, .edu vs .com), the author's credentials, the publication date, whether the information is supported by evidence, and the site's overall purpose.

Citations demonstrate that the author has grounded their work in existing knowledge, provide a pathway for readers to verify accuracy, prevent plagiarism, and build the author's reputation as a well-researched scholar.

Signs of bias include inappropriate or emotionally charged language, presenting only a one-sided view of a controversial issue, making claims without citing credible evidence, or selectively presenting facts to guide readers to a predetermined conclusion.

On a nutritional label, a 'good source' is defined as a serving of food that contains 10-19% of the recommended Daily Value (%DV) for a specific nutrient.

No, a .edu domain is not a guarantee of reliability. While many university sites are excellent sources, you should still fully evaluate every source you find, regardless of its domain, using methods like the CRAAP test.