Sources and evidence levels

Every record carries an evidence label, numbered sources and an account of which sources were opened. This page explains the labels and lists every source cited on the site.

Evidence levels on records

The label describes the core claim of a record, not every sentence in it. The page of the record gives the detail.

Documented: The event or practice is documented by primary or authoritative sources.
Company self-report: The main evidence is the company’s own account. It has not been independently audited.
Independent experiment: Independent research, with its design and limits stated.
Interpretation: A plausible reading by scholars or commentators. It is not shown to be intended by anyone.
Contested: The evidence conflicts or is disputed, for example after failed replications.
Unsupported claim: A popular claim that the sources do not support.

Individual claims on a record use a finer label: documented, company self-report, experimental finding, interpretation, contested, claim not supported. A company's own description of its system is a self-report. It is never described here as an independent audit.

Where a record sits

Four arenas are kept apart so that a popular claim is never read as a clinical finding or a company practice.

Clinical psychology: Assessment or treatment of people with distress or disorder.
Academic psychology: Research published for other researchers and students.
Consumer application: Use of psychology, or claims about it, in commerce, policy or product design.
Pop claim: A popular book, media story or folk belief.

What inspected means

Each record's audit says how every source was actually opened. Only the first five levels count as inspected. A source that failed to open, or that was seen only as a search summary, is listed honestly and supports no claim by itself.

Relevant text checked: The passages relied on were opened and read in the source text. Fetching tools often return selected or extracted passages, so the audit note on each record states the scope and this label does not mean the whole item was read.
Abstract or publisher record only: Only the abstract or publisher record was read. Claims from it stay at abstract level.
Company document read: A company press release, filing, report or blog post was opened and read.
Archive page read: An archive or library item page, or a scan, was opened and read.
Reference article read: An encyclopaedia or reference article was read. It orients, and does not settle disputed points.
Search summary only, not verified: Only a search result summary was seen. This is not counted as verification.
Not accessed, not verified: Every attempt to open the source failed. This is not counted as verification.

How records were checked

The 81 records hold 538 stated claims, each tied to numbered sources. Research was done in separate batches. A second, independent reviewer then re-opened the sources and wrote only the records that passed into the site, with a written verdict on each. Rejected and dropped records, and the reason for each, are kept in the repository's source ledger. A list of unverified coverage ideas from a separate model was not used as evidence.

The catalog below has 282 distinct sources. 282 were inspected and none was left unverified.Course links are a separate layer: they connect a record to a public OpenStax Psychology 2e section and are not evidence for the historical claims. No textbook page numbers are given.

Sources and evidence levels

Evidence levels on records

Where a record sits

What inspected means

How records were checked

Source catalog

No sources match