How to read our sources

Each entry in the source list has three parts:

• Publisher: the organization that produced the document, dataset or report.
• Label: the specific item, so you can tell a filing from a press release from a news report.
• Accessed: the date we last viewed it. This is not the date it was published, and pages can change or move afterwards.

Entries that point to another website open it in a new tab. An entry that points to a page on this site, such as our own standards, is a link within News Editors and is not an outside document.

The reading note states what the post is, whether a summary of documented developments, an explainer or commentary, and where it stops. It is the quickest way to learn how much weight a post can carry, so it is worth reading before you rely on one.

Where a note says details should be confirmed with primary sources, treat the post as a starting point and not as the record.

A source list shows what a post draws on. It does not prove that every statement in the post is correct, and the depth of sourcing differs between a short current-affairs note and a longer analysis.

The most useful habit is to open the sources, compare their dates with the post's own, and weigh a post by what it cites and how it describes itself.

• A factual mistake: see how corrections work in How we write, then write to the corrections address on the contact page.
• You are named in a post and want your response considered: Right of reply.
• A rights, privacy or legal concern: Legal.