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Evidence Authority

Governance

The AlphaCitation Standard · Version 3.0

How the standard changes: how to propose a change, how a proposal is recorded and decided, how versions are numbered, and every version released.

Proposing a change

Write to analyst@alphacitation.com with three things:

  1. The case. A claim and a source, described as the API takes them, that the standard decides wrongly or leaves undecided.
  2. The verdict you expect, and the rule you would expect to decide it.
  3. The reason, with the sources that support it.

A proposal that comes with test vectors showing the change is easier to assess.

How proposals are recorded

Each proposal is entered in the issue register with an identifier (EA-001 onward), a title, the section of the standard it concerns, the issue in one sentence, the date it was opened, the version it targets and its status. An entry is never deleted or renumbered: a proposal that is adopted, deferred or declined keeps its entry, with its resolution.

The register holds 54 issues today: 15 open and 39 adopted in 3.0.

Major, minor and patch versions

Section 7 of the standard states the rule:

Versions are numbered semantically. A change that can alter an existing verdict raises the major number. Such changes include what settles a proposition, a jurisdiction or time rule, the meaning of a verdict, and any addition (a proposition, an evidence class, an authority, a market) that changes the verdict a source already judged would receive. An addition that changes no such verdict raises the minor number. A correction that changes no rule raises the patch number.

Section 7, version 3.0

A proposal that would alter an existing verdict can therefore be adopted only in a major version.

The stable version

Version 3.0 is the stable version. It changes only by corrections that change no rule (patch versions) and by fixes to security issues in the published implementation or API; any other change, including one that would raise the minor number, waits for the next major version.

Section 7, version 3.0

Proposals made while version 3.0 is the stable version are recorded in the register as usual and considered for the next major version, or, where it is a correction that changes no rule, for a patch version.

Release history

Every version stays available. The DOI for all versions, 10.5281/zenodo.23577316, resolves to the newest; what changed in each is recorded in the version history at the head of the full text.

External review

Reviewers outside AlphaCitation are named only with their consent. An invitation to review implies no endorsement of the standard by the person or organisation invited, and AlphaCitation claims none.