Method, labels and scoring
Record Lens assesses claims, not organizations or people. This page sets out what counts as evidence, how labels are chosen, how procedural states are recorded and how the evidence score is calculated.
What we assess
An assessment starts with one checkable proposition taken from a published source: a newspaper report, a short-seller report, a company statement or an official announcement. We record who published it, when, and where it can be read. We assess claims made by critics and claims made by the organizations themselves, including denials and statements that an organization was cleared.
We do not publish an overall score, rating or verdict on any organization or person. An organization profile lists the claims assessed and the cases on record. Nothing more is inferred.
Labels
The cited record supports the material proposition.
A material part is supported, but the published wording goes beyond the record.
A reliable and applicable record states the opposite.
The claim described an earlier position that has since changed.
The available records do not permit a responsible conclusion.
No suitable evidence could be located after a documented search.
The statement is evaluative and cannot be resolved as a factual proposition.
Source hierarchy
| Tier | Source type | Permitted use |
|---|---|---|
| A | courts, legislation, regulators, prosecutors, audit and sanctions records | May establish a fact when the record is authentic, current and relevant. |
| B | company filings, registries, contracts and commissioned reports | May establish identity, disclosed positions and documented events. Self-reported claims stay attributed. |
| C | established press reporting that identifies its sources | May support context or a reported allegation. We look for the underlying record. |
| D | academic and professional analysis | May explain systems or give expert interpretation. Kept separate from primary evidence. |
| E | Social posts, anonymous comments, forums and unattributed claims | Research lead only. Never cited. |
Absence of a located record does not prove concealment, misconduct or falsity. A company denial does not disprove a claim. A settlement made without admitting or denying the allegations is not a finding.
Procedural states
Allegation, investigation, charge, indictment, settlement, deferred prosecution agreement, guilty plea, conviction, acquittal, dismissal and appeal are separate states. Each assessment states the current position and its date, and each case page records the stage reached. When an appeal or later ruling changes the position, the assessment is updated and the change is logged.
Evidence score
Each assessment carries a score out of 100. The score grades the evidence behind the assessment. It does not grade the organization, and a high score on a Contradicted label means the record clearly contradicts the claim.
| Component | Maximum | Question |
|---|---|---|
| Source authority | 30 | Is the source competent to establish the proposition? |
| Directness | 20 | Does the source state the proposition or only discuss adjacent facts? |
| Corroboration | 15 | Do independent records support the same material point? |
| Procedural accuracy | 15 | Does the record settle the procedural state the claim describes? |
| Currency | 10 | Has the record been checked against later developments? |
| Reproducibility | 10 | Can a reader locate the passage and repeat the assessment? |
Evidence score = source authority (0 to 30) + directness (0 to 20) + corroboration (0 to 15) + procedural accuracy (0 to 15) + currency (0 to 10) + reproducibility (0 to 10)
Every input and the reason for it is printed on the assessment page.
Review workflow
- A researcher reconstructs the subject's identity and jurisdiction from official records.
- Each claim is matched to the record competent to settle it, and the supporting and conflicting passages are quoted.
- A second reviewer who did not write the assessment checks every passage, date and procedural state against the source.
- Assessments about the conduct of living people are not published without that second review.
- Published assessments are rechecked for later rulings, appeals and settlements, and the review date is shown on each page.
Who appears in the database
Launch coverage is organizations: listed and private companies, banks and an exchange operator, across several countries and industries, with claims that turned out supported, contradicted, outdated and unresolved. Individuals appear only where an official record names them, and only with their exact procedural status.
Quotations and copyright
Passages are short quotations from the cited record, reproduced so a reader can repeat the assessment. We do not copy other publishers' reports, scores, photographs or relationship maps.