Verification
A record is written by reading a source. Verification is a second pass, by someone other than whoever wrote it, checking that the record says what the source says.
The rule that makes it worth anything
Whoever produced a record may not verify it. A check by the person who made the record only tests whether that person still agrees with it. Every verification carries its own identifier and date, so a record shows when it was checked, and by which check.
What the verdicts mean
| Verdict | Meaning | Published? |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmed | The source says what the record says, at the locator given. | Yes, if it also passes every other check. |
| Partial | Some of the record holds and some does not, usually because the claim was drawn wider than the source supports. | No. A rescoped record has to be rewritten and re-checked before it can be used. |
| Not confirmed | The source does not say it, or does not say it at the locator given. | No. |
| Wrong basis | The number is real but rests on a different basis than the record states, such as a different currency year or a different scope. | No. |
| Not checkable | The source could not be obtained, so the record cannot be confirmed either way. | No. |
| Unverified | No second pass has happened yet. This is the state most records are in. | No. |
Partial is a withholding verdict here
A verdict of partial means the record as written claims more than the source supports. The record is rewritten and checked again, rather than published with a hedge attached.
What checking does not catch
Checking finds arithmetic errors well. The errors that get through are of a different kind: a correct number labelled as something it is not. For example, a measurement of one thing can be presented as a measurement of another. Or one relationship can be worked twice with different inputs and described as two independent routes to the same answer.
No automatic check finds that. A record can be confirmed, high confidence, drawn from a peer-reviewed measurement, fully traceable to a page number, and still carry a label that does not match the quantity underneath it. Every gate on this site tests where a number came from and how well it is attested. None of them tests whether the sentence around it is describing the right thing.
The defence is visible on every record page: the assumptions the number depends on are printed beside it, not folded away. A mislabelled number shows when the assumptions, read next to the claim, do not describe the same quantity. If something here looks wrong to you, that block is the first place to look, and please tell us.
Why most records are not published
Verification is slow and the base is large. Most records in it have not yet had a second pass, and an unverified record is not published in any form. The published set is therefore a small fraction of what the base holds, and it will stay that way.
The full list of checks a record must pass explains why a record you expected to find may not be here.