Research and Sources Policy
How Athletes of Kenya researches, sources, and verifies its historical archive.
Purpose
This policy explains how Athletes of Kenya researches, sources, and verifies the historical and statistical information published on the Site, so that readers, researchers, and the athletes and families we write about understand the standard we work to.Source hierarchy
We treat sources as carrying different weight, roughly in this order, though judgement is applied case by case rather than mechanically:- Primary official sources — for example, official results published by an Olympic, Paralympic, or sport-specific governing body at the time of competition, and official national federation records (such as Athletics Kenya).
- Established independent reference sources — reputable, long-standing sports-history and results databases and archives maintained by independent researchers or organisations.
- Secondary published sources — books, verified news reporting, and other published editorial accounts.
- Family, athlete, or community-provided information — valuable, especially for biographical detail not held in official archives, but treated as evidence to be weighed rather than automatically definitive (see our Corrections Policy).
Primary versus secondary sources
Where a primary official source is available and legible, we prefer it for core competition facts (results, placings, medals). Where primary sources are incomplete — which is common for older Games, non-medal placings, and biographical detail such as birth or death dates — we rely on independent secondary sources, clearly aware that these can themselves contain gaps or transcription differences from the original record.Canonical names
We select the best-supported full canonical form of an athlete's name after considering the athlete's own usage, official federation and competition records, reputable historical sources, later name changes, and discoverability. Where sources genuinely differ, we aim to record a single canonical form for use across the Site, while noting significant variants where they affect discoverability or accuracy.Conflicting sources
Where credible sources disagree on a fact (for example, a date, a placing, or a spelling), we do not silently pick a version at random. We assess which source is more likely to be accurate given its proximity to the original event, its editorial standards, and any corroborating evidence, and we may record the discrepancy in internal sourcing notes even where only one version is shown publicly. See our Corrections Policy for how this interacts with correction requests.
Uncertainty labels
Where we are not confident in a detail, we aim to say so rather than presenting a guess as settled fact. Depending on context this may take the form of leaving a field blank rather than inventing a value, a note flagging that only a partial date (for example, a birth year but not a full date) is known, or an internal verification-status marker distinguishing confirmed detail from detail still under review. We do not publish invented or estimated data presented as verified fact.Source citation and provenance
Where practical, we aim to record the specific source used for a given fact internally (for example, a source URL or reference), so that our editorial basis for a claim can be traced and reviewed. We intend to work towards displaying source and provenance information on athlete and record pages where practical, recognising that this is an ongoing improvement rather than a current guarantee for every page.Version control of research
Changes to published facts — whether from routine research, new source discovery, or a correction request — are made deliberately, through our editorial data workflow, rather than through ad hoc edits to the live Site. We aim to keep an internal history of material changes to a given athlete’s record sufficient to answer "what changed, when, and on what basis" if later questioned.Corrections
This policy governs how we source and verify information. It works alongside, and does not replace, our Corrections Policy, which governs how the public can challenge or request changes to published information.
AI-assisted research safeguards
We may, from time to time, use AI-assisted tools as part of our own internal research and drafting workflow — for example, to help organise, summarise, or cross-reference source material. Where this happens:- AI-assisted output is treated as a draft or research aid, not as a verified fact in its own right;
- any factual claim originating from, or shaped by, an AI-assisted process is checked against the source hierarchy above before publication; and
- we do not present AI-generated assertions as verified historical fact. A claim is only published as fact once it has been checked against an identifiable source consistent with this policy.
Source-of-record data versus editorial interpretation
We distinguish between:- source-of-record data — facts drawn directly from an identifiable primary or secondary source (a result, a date, a medal); and
- editorial interpretation — AoK’s own descriptive or narrative writing, framing, or contextual commentary built around that data (for example, a Story or Learn article).