# Verification policy

Use this policy for citations, literature facts, journal requirements, ethics, reporting standards, and any current information.

## Evidence states

| State | Meaning | Allowed wording |
|---|---|---|
| `VERIFIED` | Checked against a primary or authoritative source | State the fact and cite the source/access date |
| `UNVERIFIED` | Plausible but not checked | Label it; do not present it as final |
| `AUTHOR_INPUT_NEEDED` | Only the author can supply or decide it | Name the exact missing input |

## Source priority

1. Journal/publisher author instructions, reporting-standard owner, registry, DOI landing page, Crossref, PubMed, arXiv, or the original paper.
2. Trusted indexes and institutional pages.
3. Reviews and secondary summaries for orientation only.
4. Search snippets, blogs, and model memory are not final evidence.

## Citation verification

Check separately:

1. **Existence:** title, authors, year, venue, DOI.
2. **Entailment:** the source actually supports the sentence.
3. **Scope:** population, dataset, method, conditions, and limitations match.
4. **Placement:** the citation is attached to the claim it supports.

Do not infer entailment from title or abstract alone when the claim depends on detailed results.

## Current-policy verification

For journal scope, formatting, AI disclosure, preprints, data sharing, ethics, and reporting checklists:

- use the official current page;
- record the access date;
- distinguish mandatory requirements from recommendations;
- avoid universal claims about a publisher when policies vary by journal;
- mark inaccessible or ambiguous rules `UNVERIFIED`.

## Quantitative checks

Recalculate totals, percentages, confidence intervals, and consistency when underlying values are available. Do not “correct” a number without logging the original, computation, and replacement.

## Prohibited claims

- guaranteed acceptance or a numeric acceptance probability without a validated model;
- guaranteed removal of AI detection;
- invented impact factors, quartiles, DOI values, policies, or reviewer identities;
- claims of visual inspection, compilation, or source verification that did not occur.

