Authoritative Reference
When writing or speaking about anything (beyond norma chit chat or uninformed opinion) authoritative reference citations are essential. The references give the reader confidence that you have done your homework in preparing your work, they show how your results and conclusions fit within the established work of others, and they allow the reader or listener to find sources of additional in-depth information.
Authoritative references are archival, corroborated, and sanctioned.
- Archival means the source is currently available, accessible by the public, and expected to remain available in the future. This would apply to books and magazines in a public library, official government documents, and bona fide electronic document repositories, on-line research archives of academic institutions or professional organizations.
- Corroborated means information appears in at least two separate and reliable sources, such as a journal article by one author and the matching information in a research monograph by another author. Corroboration does not guarantee the accuracy, but it helps prevent published errors—either accidental or intentional—from leading you astray.
- Sanctioned indicates the information is from a trustworthy and reputable source, such as a professionally published reference book, a professional society magazine, a scholarly peer-reviewed journal, or a similar source that is known to have reliable fact-checking procedures in place.
When we conjecture about anything from SAR-CoV-2 to No Estimates, ask first - where is the authoritative reference for the claim?
We'll often find the conjecture is just that, a conjecture. An opinion based on no authoritative references, an out of my ass claim
