Source & Verification Standards
Last Updated: October 17, 2026
SOURCE SELECTION DEPENDS ON THE TOPIC
There is no single ranking of sources that works for every subject. A regulatory filing is the best source for a company's finances and a poor one for how a book argues its case.
Where appropriate, we prefer, in roughly this order:
- Government and regulatory sources
- Official documents and filings
- Primary research and original publications
- Established news agencies and publications
- Company announcements
- Specialist publications
- Other sources, used with appropriate caution
SOCIAL MEDIA
Material circulating on social media is not treated as verified fact because it is widely shared.
Where a claim originates there, we either verify it against a source from the list above, or we describe it as an unverified claim and say so.
FACT, ANALYSIS AND POSSIBILITY
Where it matters, we distinguish three things:
Verified Fact — checked against a source we are willing to name.
Analysis — our reading of what the facts mean. Ours, not the source's.
Scenario or Possibility — something that could happen. A forecast is not a fact, and we do not write it as one.
Where a claim cannot be verified against its source, it is removed or rewritten as interpretation rather than presented as fact.
BOOK SUMMARIES
A summary states the author's position as the author's position. Where we draw a conclusion the author did not, that is our analysis and is presented as ours.
The original book is always credited by title and author. A summary is not a substitute for the book. See our Copyright & IP page.