Fact-checking Guide
This document defines how factual verification is conducted within the Craftpedia ecosystem. It applies to all languages, all regional portals, and all types of craft-related articles.
The aim of this guide is to ensure that Craftpedia articles meet a high standard of historical and cultural accuracy, aligned with museum-grade documentation practices.
Purpose of This Guide
The Fact-checking Guide establishes:
- what must be fact-checked;
- where reliable information should be sourced from;
- which sources are acceptable or unacceptable;
- procedures for identifying and correcting inaccuracies;
- best practices for verifying terminology, dates, origins, and cultural contexts.
Fact-checkers ensure that Craftpedia remains a trustworthy, academically oriented digital resource.
Role of the Fact-checker
The fact-checker focuses on content accuracy, not language quality.
Their responsibilities include:
- verifying historical facts, dates, origins, and attributions;
- checking claims about techniques, materials, and regional variations;
- confirming terminology against museum and academic usage;
- identifying unsupported or ambiguous statements;
- ensuring citations are present where needed.
A fact-checker must not:
- rewrite text for style (this is the proofreader’s job);
- introduce new facts not supported by reliable sources;
- rely on unverified websites, blogs, or commercial descriptions.
What Must Be Fact-checked
Fact-checkers must verify the following categories of information:
Historical Background
- origin periods and centuries;
- dynasties, eras, historical transitions;
- dates of major developments or technological innovations.
Geographical Information
- correct region, prefecture, province, or cultural group;
- accurate mapping of regional variations;
- confirmation of cross-border influences (e.g., China → Korea → Japan).
Materials and Techniques
- accurate description of raw materials;
- correctness of chemical or physical properties (e.g., clay composition, metal alloys);
- proper identification of techniques used in each craft tradition.
Terminology
- correct craft names (in English and original language);
- appropriate transliteration;
- correct spelling of historical periods and dynasties;
- correct use of terms such as “stoneware,” “porcelain,” “lacquer,” “casting,” etc.
Cultural Significance
- claims about rituals, symbolic meaning, and religious use;
- statements about social status or community role.
Modern Developments
- information about current artists, studios, or revival movements;
- connections to museums or exhibitions;
- references to contemporary usage.
Numerical Claims
- dates
- production counts
- population or workshop numbers
- chronological ranges
Any statement that relies on numbers must be verified.
Acceptable Sources
Fact-checkers must rely on authoritative, reputable, and academically grounded sources.
Primary Categories of Acceptable Sources
- museum publications and catalogues;
- university presses and academic monographs;
- peer-reviewed journal articles;
- archaeological reports;
- official documents from cultural institutions;
- major historical dictionaries or encyclopedias;
- authoritative government cultural heritage descriptions.
Acceptable Online Sources
- museum websites (e.g., British Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Met Museum);
- university-hosted resources (.edu);
- digitized museum catalogues;
- established scholarly organizations (e.g., UNESCO, ICOM).
Sources That Require Caution
- commercial websites (shops, auction houses);
- artisan self-descriptions;
- tourist websites;
- blogs and informal forums.
These sources may contain useful insights, but cannot be used to verify factual information.
Unacceptable Sources
- Wikipedia (may be used for orientation, but not as a citation);
- machine-generated content;
- AI-written descriptions without human verification;
- promotional or marketing texts;
- unreferenced claims from random websites.
How to Check a Fact
Fact-checkers should follow a structured process:
- Identify the claim.
- Locate one or more reliable sources that confirm or deny it.
- Compare terminology and phrasing across sources.
- Ensure that the meaning is correctly reflected in the article.
- Document the source in the article’s references section.
- Flag ambiguous or disputed claims for editorial review.
If conflicting information appears:
- prefer museum or academic sources over all others;
- document the inconsistency in an editorial note if necessary.
Handling Disputed or Uncertain Information
Some crafts have multiple origin stories, conflicting dates, or ambiguous terminology.
In such cases:
- present the most widely accepted interpretation;
- acknowledge alternative interpretations when academically recognized;
- avoid definitive wording for uncertain claims;
- clearly attribute perspectives to sources.
Example:
- Some scholars attribute the origin of the technique to the late 16th century, while others suggest an early 17th-century development.
Checking Translated Articles
For translations:
- check that factual meaning has not shifted;
- verify that no new “facts” were added during translation;
- confirm that craft names, place names, and period terminology match authoritative usage;
- ensure that culturally sensitive terms are correct.
Common problems in translations:
- mistranslated technical terms;
- incorrect period names;
- wrong regional references;
- loss of detail about materials or techniques.
What to Do When an Error Is Found
If a fact-checker discovers an error:
- correct the factual statement;
- update the reference section accordingly;
- leave an edit summary explaining the correction;
- notify translators if other languages are affected;
- record major corrections on the article’s discussion page.
Fact-checkers should avoid:
- rewriting large portions of the article without coordination;
- removing text unless it is demonstrably incorrect or unsupported.
Citations and References
Every article must include:
- at least one authoritative reference;
- citations for statements of high significance (origin dates, major features, historical claims).
Fact-checkers must ensure:
- references are properly formatted;
- sources are clearly identifiable;
- references correspond to actual claims in the article.
Version Control and Coordination
Fact-checkers should:
- monitor changes to key articles;
- communicate with translators when factual updates are necessary;
- ensure that factual corrections are reflected across all language versions;
- keep lists of references commonly used for major craft families.
Large edits or reinterpretations should be discussed with:
- editors,
- translators,
- proofreaders,
- or the project lead (where applicable).
Common Pitfalls
Fact-checkers must be careful about:
- relying on Wikipedia instead of its cited sources;
- accepting simplified or romanticized interpretations;
- assuming regional terms are interchangeable;
- trusting commercial sites for historical claims;
- confusing similar crafts (e.g., export porcelain variants);
- overlooking conflicting dates or regional attributions;
- assuming that a museum’s terminology must match local terminology (e.g., British Museum terms vs. Japanese terms).
When Fact-checking Is Complete
A fact-checker may consider the article ready when:
- all major factual statements are verified;
- terminology and transliteration are correct;
- references are present and authoritative;
- any uncertainties are clearly documented;
- no contradictions or unsupported claims remain.
Version History
- 1.0 – Initial release (English)