Reference
Plain-English definitions of the public terminology used across CiteAbility™ and the Citation Integrity™ framework — the eight public dimensions, the products, the evidence and attribution concepts, and the language we use for AI access and observed outcomes.
The glossary defines public concepts only. CiteAbility™ does not disclose proprietary signals, weights, thresholds, gates, calculations, verification mappings or internal decision logic.
37 terms
A product or service that generates answers for users using AI. CiteAbility™ Outcomes currently evaluates Perplexity only while in Beta.
Also known as: Answer engine
An automated agent used by an AI, search or retrieval service to request and read web content.
Also known as: Bot, User agent
A technical permission state showing that a crawler is not blocked from requesting a website or page. Permission does not prove that a visit occurred.
Also known as: Crawler permission
Identifying the source, organisation, author or evidence that supports a statement.
A comparative view of Citation Integrity™ results across a qualifying dataset or defined peer group. A benchmark is not a universal ranking.
A reference to a source used to support or attribute information in an answer or published statement.
The degree to which published information can be responsibly relied upon, evidenced, attributed and used as a source for AI-generated answers.
CiteAbility’s free initial diagnostic that assesses a website’s public information for evidence, attribution, accessibility and other public Citation Integrity™ dimensions within the defined audit scope.
Also known as: Audit, Free Audit
An independent paid assessment for qualifying organisations. Payment covers the assessment process and does not guarantee certification, citation, retrieval, ranking, recommendation or mention by any AI system.
Also known as: Certified, Certification
The eight public dimensions used to describe what CiteAbility™ assesses: Source Authority; Entity Authority; Organizational Probity; Evidence & Citations; First-Hand Experience; Content Quality; Technical Accessibility; and Integrity Analysis. The dimensions do not disclose the proprietary scoring methodology.
Also known as: Eight dimensions, Framework
The CiteAbility capability that watches for changes or regressions in a company’s Citation Integrity position and relevant website, evidence and access conditions over time.
Also known as: Monitor
The ongoing CiteAbility improvement product that establishes a company’s current Citation Integrity position, identifies genuine findings that weaken it, prioritises actions and helps verify whether completed work changed the measured result.
Also known as: Score
A Perplexity-only Beta that records observed answers, mentions, citations, recommendations and source use for selected questions. It does not prove that a website change caused an observed outcome.
Also known as: Outcomes
A source that is explicitly referenced or linked in an observed AI answer.
A claim is a factual statement about a business, product, service, person or event that an AI system may repeat. CiteAbility™ considers whether a claim is attributable, supported by relevant evidence, appropriately qualified and suitable for responsible reliance. Repetition or confident wording is not proof.
An indication of how strongly an assessment or observed result is supported within its defined context. Confidence is not a guarantee of truth or future AI behaviour.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether published information is clear, useful, coherent, appropriately detailed and suitable for responsible reliance.
Independent or additional evidence that supports the same factual statement or conclusion.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers the strength and clarity of the identifiable person, organisation, product or entity associated with the information.
Information that supports, substantiates or helps verify a factual claim.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether important claims are supported by relevant evidence and appropriate source references.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether information demonstrates direct experience, original knowledge, observation, testing or other first-hand involvement where relevant.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether the available information, taken as a whole, is coherent, appropriately qualified and suitable for responsible reliance.
An observed instance where an AI answer names or refers to a company, product, service, person or other entity. A mention is not necessarily a citation or recommendation.
Evidence showing that a crawler or automated service actually requested a website or page. Observed access does not prove that the content was cited, mentioned or used in an answer.
Also known as: Crawler visit
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether verified, attributable information about an organisation’s conduct, transparency or standing is materially relevant to reliance on its published information. Missing information is not treated as misconduct, allegations are not treated as established facts, and unverified information is not treated as adverse.
Original material produced by a person or organisation with direct knowledge of the subject, event, data, product or activity being described.
Information about where content, evidence, data or a claim originated and how its source can be identified.
Context or wording that appropriately limits a claim so it does not overstate what the evidence supports.
An observed AI answer that positively suggests, selects or favours a company, product, service or option. A recommendation is distinct from a simple mention or citation.
The process by which an AI or search system finds candidate information or sources before producing an answer. CiteAbility™ does not claim control over an external provider’s retrieval process.
A page, document, record, person, organisation, dataset or other identifiable origin of information.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether a source is identifiable, attributable, relevant and sufficiently dependable for the information it provides.
An observed indication that an AI answer relied on, referenced, quoted, linked or otherwise drew from a source. The exact evidence available depends on the answer environment being observed.
One of the eight public Citation Integrity™ dimensions. It considers whether relevant public information can be accessed and interpreted reliably by ordinary web and machine-reading systems.
The act of checking whether information, identity, evidence or source details are supported sufficiently for the defined assessment purpose.
A source whose identity, origin or supporting evidence has been checked to the extent defined by the relevant CiteAbility™ product or assessment. “Verified” does not mean infallible and does not guarantee use by an AI system.