# Research — Method guidance

**Method:** `research@1`
**Purpose:** Produce an evidence-based answer to a focused question.
**Required inputs:** research question; source constraints
**Expected outputs:** findings; sources; limitations

Apply every section below to the findings before reporting the work done — an unsupported claim
or an undisclosed gap in an otherwise well-written answer is still a defect.

## Source relevance

Confirm every citation's source actually addresses the research question that was asked, not a
related but distinct question the source happens to discuss. Discard a source that only
tangentially touches the topic and note the resulting gap rather than stretching an off-target
source to fill it.

## Claim support

Trace every substantive claim back to at least one specific source passage you can quote or cite
by location, not to a source's general reputation, before finalizing the findings. A claim with
no traceable passage behind it is unsupported and must be removed, qualified, or replaced with
one that is.

## Limitation disclosure

State every material limitation of the research directly in the findings — a source gap, a
conflicting source, a question the available sources could not settle, or a scope boundary you
had to draw — rather than leaving it implicit. A reader relying on an undisclosed limitation is
being misled by omission.