Sourced / disputed / unverified

The three tags every number in this course’s research base carries, plus a fourth state for figures that measure belief rather than incidence.

Sourced. A named person or institution, using a describable method, published it. Publishable, with the attribution spoken.

Disputed. More than one credible published figure exists and the field has not closed the gap. Publishable only as a dispute, with both figures and both owners. Never averaged, because averaging manufactures a number nobody published and hides the fact that the gap exists.

Unverified. The claim circulates widely and the original cannot be located. Not publishable. Either cut, or written out in ordinary English with the gap named.

The tag itself never appears on a lesson page. It lives in the research files. On the page it becomes a sentence.

Source: Course-coined, as the working tagging convention of the research maps in the Library, where disputed numbers carry their competing figures inline and untraceable ones are marked rather than dropped. The underlying practice is ordinary source criticism; the three-tag shorthand is this build’s own.

First used in: 0.2 · How we will know what is true