EDITORIAL / RESEARCH STANDARDS
Evidence is
a public method.
The archive distinguishes what a source says, what it can prove and what historians infer from it.
Define the claim
A statement about a first, an invention, a date or an individual contribution must be scoped precisely. Separate design, publication, implementation, demonstration, deployment and adoption.
Label the source type
Identify when a link opens a contemporary artifact, digitization, transcript, oral history, archival finding aid, institutional account or modern synthesis. Do not pass a secondary summary off as primary evidence.
Preserve dates and provenance
For a document, record the author or issuing body, creation or publication date, archival collection where known, edition, location and retrieval URL. Distinguish later reproduction dates from original dates.
Include disagreement
When reputable sources differ on sequence, credit or significance, articulate the disputed proposition. Present the evidence for each interpretation and state where the record is insufficient.
Identify missing perspectives
Avoid erasing programmers, operators, technicians, women, non-Western communities and support staff by default. Attribution should match the role established by evidence, not retroactive slogans.
Document revision
Corrections that materially change an account must include an edition, date, explanation and relevant supporting source. Quiet fixes to typography need not imply historical revision.
Keep tools accountable
AI assistance may help classify documents or draft text, but it is not itself a source. References and historical claims require verification against publicly inspectable material.
Moderate contributions fairly
Evidence submissions are research leads, not automatic changes. Reviewers evaluate relevance, authenticity, permissions, privacy and the quality of conflicting records before publishing.
WHAT OUR STATUS LABELS MEAN
- DOCUMENTED
- Directly supported by an identified record for the specific claim.
- INTERPRETED
- An inference drawn from records with reasoning made explicit.
- DISPUTED
- Credible accounts conflict or the definition is contested.
- UNVERIFIED
- A lead awaits adequate corroboration and should not be asserted as fact.