Critical Digital Reading and Online Information Evaluation: A Systematic Review and Proposed BACA-KRITIS Framework

Abstract

University students must understand digital texts while evaluating the credibility of online sources, yet reading comprehension and information evaluation are often treated as separate instructional priorities; this systematic literature review examined their relationship and developed an instructional framework to integrate comprehension, verification, and reflection. A bounded Google Scholar search completed on 9 October 2026 identified 30 candidate records, supplemented by three candidates from citation checking; two reviewers independently assessed eligibility and checked extracted evidence, while an adapted PRISMA 2020 diagram documented selection and narrative synthesis compared six empirical studies from the United States and Indonesia. Findings revealed difficulties evaluating source identity, supporting evidence, and bias, while explicit lateral-reading instruction was associated with improvements in observed information-evaluation performance; in one study, evaluation scores increased from 3.95 to 7.08 out of 13, although comprehension gains and credibility judgments remained distinct outcomes requiring separate assessment. Heterogeneous designs and measures, nonrandom comparisons, absent control groups in some studies, institutional confounding, ten unavailable full texts, and qualitative appraisal without a validated risk-of-bias instrument constrained causal interpretation and the completeness of the evidence base, preventing a pooled effect estimate or claims of general instructional effectiveness. The proposed ten-stage BACA-KRITIS framework connects initial reading, source analysis, comparison, argument analysis, evidence checking, reflection, interpretation, conclusion, implications, and academic response; it provides an evidence-informed sequence for classroom design rather than a validated intervention, requiring controlled classroom evaluation with attention to implementation fidelity, assessment validation, and tests of retention and transfer across disciplines and student groups before broader educational adoption