Methodology

Source first

Work begins, where possible, from a source or document. The minimal necessary record set is built and linked to that source before publication.

No published record may remain without a valid evidence path. This is a mandatory publication requirement that cannot be overridden.

Separate questions, not one scale

The registry does not use a single "verification level". Each question has its own field, because collapsing them hides material differences:

• Publisher: who published the material.
• Source type: the medium, such as a news agency, an official website, or a social platform.
• Source role: how this material relates to the original fact or instrument.
• Evidence basis: what kind of evidence the material provides.
• Source independence: whether the material is independent of the other cited publications or derived from one of them.
• Material status: whether the publication is still as issued, or was corrected, withdrawn, deleted, or superseded.
• Document verification status: whether the document's existence, attribution, and core metadata were checked.
• Record evidence status: how strongly the fact is supported by the total evidence.
• Editorial state: whether the record appears publicly or remains internal.

Source role

Source role describes the relationship between the material and the origin of the fact. On its own it is not sufficient to publish a public record, and it does not mean the information is proven. The governed values are:

• Official origin: the authority responsible for the act or instrument publishes it itself.
• Official carrier: an official body reports a fact issued by another authority without reproducing the instrument.
• Official republication: an official body republishes the text, image, or file of an instrument issued elsewhere.
• First party: a directly involved person or entity provides the information without being the institutional issuer.
• Trusted secondary: an independent secondary publisher inside the accepted editorial tier.
• Nonpreferred secondary: a real secondary publisher outside the accepted tier. This does not mean everything it publishes is false.
• Aggregator: the material mainly republishes or aggregates another source.
• Archival copy: a saved snapshot used because the original page is unavailable or altered.
• Unresolved: the role has not been settled and needs review.

Reporting a fact versus republishing the instrument

Evidence basis describes the kind of evidence the material provides. It stays separate from source role.

When an official agency reports that the presidency issued appointments, the material is an official carrier and its evidence basis is official reporting. When the same agency publishes the text, image, or file of the decree, the material is an official republication and its evidence basis is a republished copy.

The same publisher can hold different roles for different material. The role is decided from the specific material, never inferred from the domain name or the publisher's identity.

Independence and corroboration

Independence is measured against the other cited publications, not against the event. Four sites copying one report are not four independent confirmations; they are one source and three copies. Several links are not several sources.

If site B copies site A, and site C copies B, that is not three independent confirmations. Derived material never counts as independent corroboration.

Several links do not by themselves change how a record is shown publicly, and they are not enough to change the publication decision or to mark a fact corroborated. The material must be genuinely independent, and the decision remains a human editorial one after independence is assessed. Public pages focus on the records and their linked sources.

Multiple reports never upgrade an individual source from nonpreferred secondary to trusted secondary.

Official social-media accounts

An official institutional account is an official origin when its official status can be established and the information originates from that institution. If it republishes a decision or document issued by another official authority, the material is an official republication. An involved person's own official account is first-party material.

A platform verification badge may support the assessment and is never sufficient by itself. The platform type alone determines neither source role nor evidence basis.

Personal knowledge and research leads

Personal knowledge and locally circulating information that cannot yet be documented may start research, but they are never used alone as the basis for a published fact.

Those starting points are kept internally as research leads. They do not appear publicly, are not sources, do not raise evidence status, and cannot satisfy publication requirements.

Status of the published material

Material can be corrected, withdrawn, deleted, or superseded after publication. That state is recorded on the source, and a neutral notice is shown on the public page where relevant.

A change of material status never deletes the source record, never changes its role, and never reclassifies the publisher. Its effect on the fact is reviewed separately.

Document verification status

Document verification status states whether the document's existence, attribution, and core metadata were checked. It does not mean every statement inside the document is a proven fact, and it is fully separate from the editorial state.

Its values are verified, needs review, unverified, and disputed.

Record evidence status

Record evidence status describes how strongly a fact is supported by the total evidence: established, corroborated by multiple independent sources, probable, needs further verification, conflicting, unverified, or refuted.

Needs further verification means the current evidence is insufficient, not that the fact is false. It is distinct from the editorial state in review.

When two official sources contradict each other, neither source is downgraded because of the conflict. It is the fact that becomes conflicting.

Source role, evidence basis, independence, document verification, and record evidence status are not collapsed into one confidence rating or a percentage. Syria Registry uses these descriptive states, not numeric scores or star ratings.

Publication is not evidence status

"Published" means the record met the current publishing standard. It does not necessarily mean the fact is established.

A record may be published and corroborated by multiple independent sources, or published and only probable. Publication is an editorial threshold; evidence status describes the strength of the evidence.

Editorial states

Records pass through clear editorial states: draft, in review, published, and archived. Only published records appear in the public interface.

Publication thresholds

A record is published only when minimum criteria are met, including valid evidence appropriate to the record type.

Publication means the record meets the current publishing standard—not that every detail is absolutely proven.

Conflicting information

When sources conflict, facts are presented descriptively and the conflict is noted where available, without resolving beyond what sources support.

Missing information

If a fact is missing, the field stays empty and an internal verification note may be recorded. Dates, biographies, and relationships are not invented.

Corrections and updates

Correction requests supported by verifiable sources are accepted. Records are updated when sufficient evidence is available, preserving source traceability.

Neutral factual writing

Facts are presented descriptively without adopting political judgments or unproven accusations. Sources come before conclusions.

Legal and organizational research

Research examines legal foundations, organizational structures, competencies, and institutional relationships. Legally defined powers do not by themselves establish how they are exercised, and a document’s presence does not by itself establish that it remains in force.

Incomplete coverage means that the review or record set is unfinished. Unreliable evidence concerns the quality, independence, or relevance of the available material. The two are not treated as equivalent.

Monthly monitoring method

Each bulletin states its coverage period and date basis. Decision dates are kept distinct from tenure start and end dates and from the effective dates of institutional changes. Missing dates remain missing and are not replaced with a source publication date.

Leadership movements, appointments, and institutional changes are reviewed within the stated period. Extraction and structuring can support the workflow, but human researchers remain responsible for interpreting records and assembling published outputs.

Facts versus interpretation

Verified facts must be distinguished from analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. Interpretation is not presented as a factual record.

Knowledge gaps

Missing information is not evidence of misconduct or institutional failure.

Research integrity and transparency

Each output distinguishes documented facts from analysis and recommendations and discloses its scope, sources, method, limitations, and evidence gaps. Wording and interpretation receive human review, while corrections and updates remain traceable.

Comparative frameworks

OECD/SIGMA principles may be used as analytical references when relevant to a research question. This does not imply certification or official affiliation, and it does not produce automatic compliance scores.