Source & Fact-Checking Policy
Primary sources always, every claim clearly sourced, and anything we could not verify clearly indicated, instead of covered over.
What the Human Source and Fact-Checking Policy Covers
Primary sources take precedence over everything else. Something like the original study, filing, or publication is much more useful than an article or press release about it. While the regulator’s guidance is quite useful, if a law firm were to provide their own summary, it is more useful to go straight to the source. Secondary sources are used to find primary sources. They do not take the place of primary sources.
What a reasonable person would consider a reasonably questionable part of your work should be cited. This includes statistics, dates, quoted sources, claims concerning named organizations, and statements regarding laws and regulations. It also includes statements of particular significance in the course of your argument. Common sense and your logic are exempt, as are those parts of the work that are empty.
There are various levels, and it’s expected writers will look past the first link. Research and data at the top are peer-reviewed and official. After that are reputable journalism and respected trade bodies. Used at the bottom are vendor materials and blogs. These are used to obtain information that is unique to that vendor about its product.
- Peer-reviewed research, official statistics and primary filings
- Regulator and standards-body guidance in its original form
- Established journalism and recognized industry bodies
- Vendor material only for claims about that vendor’s own product
- Never: content farms, scraped aggregators or AI-generated summaries
How the Human Source and Fact-Checking Policy Works
The author drafts with sources before he or she writes. It is tempting to write motivated and reasoned drafts, but inserting sources later is the most common way a good draft goes bad.
Once a draft is complete, it is sent to an editor. The editor follows links and confirms the source of each claim, ensuring that the figures have not moved in the rewrites, (something that was correct in draft 2 is not correct in draft 4 for example).
Where we cannot verify something, we either take it out or keep it with a clear label as ‘unconfirmed’ along with an explanation of what was and was not confirmed. We do not just ‘confidently’ fill in a sentence, because a language model would do that exactly with the same kind of gap.
Why this page exists
Hallucinated citations are the worst kind of problem that machine-generated writing can produce. A policy for sourcing text correctly is the only real solution.
When the Human Source and Fact-Checking Policy Applies
This policy extends to research-based formats such as reports, whitepapers, articles and health and finance content, and any content that makes a factual statement. Whether the content is short or long, the policy applies. A product description that claims to meet certain certifications is included in the policy. So is a market report.
It is especially applicable to regulated areas. For content involving health, legal, finance, or safety, we opt to source conservatively and avoid language or phrases that may suggest professional advice. We clearly state that the client’s qualified reviewer should review and sign off on the content prior to the publication.
You will receive the source list with the delivery. You may request additional materials as PDFs, datasets, or interview transcripts, and we will share what we are permitted to.
Human Source and Fact-Checking Policy FAQs
Everyone working on Articled commissions and every piece that states a fact must be true. Truth applies regardless of how small or how big the format happens to be.
Reply to your delivery email for questions about sources. If you have something more general, use our contact page. If you think a source someone has cited does not support the claim, let us know. It is always better we hear about it from you than from a reader.
That’s what the piece says. In the case of insufficient evidence, using your own operational data, which you label yours, is the reliable choice, and it is best practice to avoid making estimates and passing them off as findings.
Yes, it almost always enhances the essay. We check all citations. If you give something that we consider to be unreliable or misrepresented, we will note that before we use it to argue a point in your essay.
Yes, as per instructions. A single twenty-minute interview is more valuable than a day of desk research. It also creates unique resources.
Content a person actually wrote
$10 per 100 words, and the writer keeps all of it. Our 1% sits on top, 0.5% goes to trees, and no generated text appears anywhere in the process.