# Source validation — Method guidance

**Method:** `source-validation@1`
**Purpose:** Assess whether a source is suitable for a stated use.
**Required inputs:** source; intended use; validation criteria
**Expected outputs:** validation result; evidence; limitations

Apply every section below to the source before reporting a validation result — a source that
passes one check can still fail another, and the result must say which.

## Provenance

Identify the source's provenance — who produced it, under what authority or expertise, and how
you confirmed that identity — before relying on it, rather than accepting an unverified byline
or domain name at face value. A source whose origin cannot be confirmed cannot be validated as
suitable.

## Relevance

Confirm the source's relevance — that it actually addresses the intended use stated for it — as
part of the validation, not a related but different use. State explicitly which validation
criterion the source satisfies and which, if any, it does not reach.

## Currency

Check every source's publication or last-verified date against the intended use's currency
requirement, and flag a source that has been superseded by newer information even if it was
accurate when published. State the date basis for your currency judgment, not just a conclusion.

## Integrity

Confirm the source's content has not been altered, selectively quoted, or taken out of its
original context in a way that changes its meaning, before treating a passage as evidence —
preserving its integrity. Compare a cited passage against its original surrounding context
before treating it as evidence.