Citation Integrity™ 101 · Module 4 of 9

What’s actually been verified — and what’s just alleged?

Organizational Probity is the Dimension most easily misunderstood, because it’s built around a strict rule: only verified information moves the needle, and it moves it in the direction the evidence actually points.

Module 4

What Organizational Probity checks

This Dimension checks whether verified official findings, adjudicated sanctions, or an organization’s own disclosures materially bear on reliance. It records them with provenance, status and date.

Three guardrails matter here: missing information is never read as misconduct; allegations and third-party commentary are never treated as established fact; and anything that can’t be verified is marked unverified — not adverse.

Worked examples

The same claim, two different outcomes.

Concrete cases are the fastest way to see how this Dimension behaves in practice.

Recorded as adverse

A company has one formally adjudicated regulatory sanction on record — verified, dated, with a clear source.

Not recorded as adverse

The same company also has a pile of unproven allegations circulating that were never verified by any adjudicating body. Those stay marked unverified. They don’t get treated as equivalent to the sanction, and they don’t count against the organization the way a verified finding does.

Quick check

Two questions before you move on.

Ungraded and untracked — just a comprehension nudge.

1Does an unverified allegation count the same as an adjudicated finding?

2If CiteAbility™ simply has no information about an organization’s conduct, is that treated as a red flag?

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