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Highest support
DOCUMENTED
The stated proposition is directly supported by identified documentary evidence. The citation should allow a reader to locate the supporting source and, where possible, the relevant page or record.
Evidence Status Key
Know what the evidence actually establishes.
Rosetta uses a controlled evidentiary vocabulary so that documented facts, indirect relationships, open questions, research leads, and missing records are never presented as though they carry the same weight.
Source → Verification → Qualification → Status → Citation → Publication
Site-wide standard
One vocabulary across the Rosetta Web.
The status attached to a record describes the strength and character of the historical support for that proposition. It does not describe how interesting, important, or plausible a claim may be.
Statuses may change when new records are recovered or existing sources are re-evaluated. Rosetta should preserve the reason for a substantive status change rather than silently strengthening a claim.
Core rule
Evidence status follows the source—not the desired conclusion.
Chronology, proximity, repetition, technical plausibility, or institutional association cannot substitute for the documentary link required by the proposition being made.
Public evidence vocabulary
Read the label before reading the connection.
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Relational support
INDIRECTLY DOCUMENTED
The proposition is supported through documented relationships among sources, but the specific connection is not directly stated in a single identified record. The inferential step must be visible and bounded.
?
Open question
UNRESOLVED
Relevant evidence exists, but the historical question cannot yet be resolved with sufficient confidence. Conflicting, incomplete, ambiguous, or missing evidence remains material.
⌁
Investigation
RESEARCH LEAD
A proposition, reference, archival trail, or documentary clue being investigated. A research lead is not an established historical finding and remains separate from public evidence until evaluated.
Research Leads →∅
Documentary gap
MISSING EVIDENCE / MISSING-RECORD TARGET
A specifically identified documentary gap, referenced-but-unrecovered record, or expected record series. Its absence does not establish what the missing record would have said.
The Missing Evidence →Separate publication status
READY FOR WEBSITE is not an evidence status.
READY FOR WEBSITE belongs to Rosetta's publication workflow. It means an item has cleared the required source, citation, evidentiary-qualification, and public-presentation review. A record may be publication-ready while still being correctly labeled UNRESOLVED or MISSING EVIDENCE.
Master Evidence → Source Verified → Citation Reviewed → Public-Safe Review → Ready for Website
Important distinction
Status applies to a proposition.
A single document can directly document one fact, indirectly support another, leave a third unresolved, and identify a fourth as a research lead. Rosetta should not assign an entire document one blanket evidentiary meaning.
How to use the key
Ask exactly what the source proves.
When reading a Rosetta record, separate the existence of a facility from the work performed there; the presence of a material from an exposure; employment from a task; an incident from an individual dose; a shipment from its ultimate operational use; and a contractor association from a documented work scope.
Rosetta principle
A missing link remains a missing link.
Rosetta preserves gaps rather than closing them by assumption. When new evidence changes a status, the supporting record and reasoning should be identifiable.