The provenance chain
- Source: a public artifact with author, URL, date, type, locator, and license or access note.
- Claim: one falsifiable assertion with supporting evidence, counterevidence, scope, and confidence.
- Finding: a reviewed synthesis of multiple claims that explains why the pattern matters.
- Guidance: a practical recommendation with explicit conditions and failure modes.
Evidence grades
| Grade | Meaning | Public use |
|---|---|---|
| A | Reproducible direct observation or strong primary source with a clear locator. | Eligible for reviewed claims. |
| B | Corroborated public sources or a bounded inference from primary evidence. | Eligible with limitations. |
| C | A single weak source, indirect evidence, or uncorroborated observation. | Draft only. |
| D | Speculation or unresolved disagreement. | Never presented as a conclusion. |
The publication boundary
Tracked public content must be defensible from public evidence alone. Employer, client, confidential, unpublished, or proprietary material has no path into the site. Private experience cannot be “sanitized” into a factual claim without an independent public source or a new reproducible public experiment.
Corrections and freshness
Published entities will carry a verification date, evidence grade, status, limitations, and correction history. Stale or disputed claims should be marked, downgraded, deprecated, or retracted rather than silently preserved.