Editorial standards

The rules this publication follows for sourcing, citations, uncertainty, corrections, and the use of AI tools. Last reviewed 2026.

Content types

Every article is classified before publication: news (a verified recent development), research brief (a paper or report with method, findings, and limitations), analysis (evidence-backed interpretation), explainer (evergreen background), tutorial (reproducible instructions), and opinion (labelled interpretation). Opinion is never presented as reporting, and preprints are never described as peer-reviewed.

Sourcing hierarchy

  1. Tier A — primary evidence. The original paper, dataset, government report, standard, official documentation, repository, or regulatory filing. Claims in news, research briefs, and analysis must trace to Tier A where one exists.
  2. Tier B — high-quality secondary reporting. Established publications or specialist outlets that cite primary evidence. Used for context and corroboration, not as the sole basis for a factual claim.
  3. Tier C — discovery only. Social posts, aggregators, and newsletters. Useful for finding a story; never sufficient as the factual foundation of an article.

When only one primary source exists for a developing story, the article says so rather than implying consensus.

Citations

Articles that make specific factual claims carry a sources list with links to the primary material, the publisher, and the retrieval date. Where a DOI exists, it is listed and linked. Citations are never invented, and a claim that cannot be sourced is removed or explicitly attributed to its source rather than stated as fact.

Scientific claims and uncertainty

  • Peer-reviewed work is distinguished from preprints in the article text.
  • Sample sizes and study scope are stated where they are material to the claim.
  • Correlation is not presented as causation, and model output is not presented as observation.
  • Effect sizes are not exaggerated, and limitations are stated explicitly.
  • “May” is not upgraded to “does” in headlines or body copy.

Corrections

Substantive corrections are made in place and accompanied by an updated date on the article. Where a correction changes the substance of a claim, the change is described in the article itself. Errors can be reported through the contact details on the portfolio site.

AI assistance

AI tools may be used for research discovery, structuring, and language editing. They are not permitted to introduce facts, numbers, quotations, or citations that are not present in the collected source material, and every AI-assisted draft is reviewed against its sources before publication. Drafts produced by the automated research pipeline are marked as drafts and require human review; nothing from that pipeline publishes itself.

Article updates

Articles show a published date and, when they are revised, an updated date. A story is only republished with a new date when the substance changes; minor copy edits do not reset the published date.

Independence

There is no advertising, sponsorship, or affiliate revenue on this site. Where the author is involved in a project being written about, the article carries a disclosure.