A practical hierarchy for first-party, primary, independent, syndicated and low-evidence sources used in entity corroboration.
Evidence hierarchy
| Class | Examples | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Primary / regulatory | SEC filing, official corporate announcement | Best for dates, appointments, transactions and directly observed facts. |
| Independent editorial | Entrepreneur, Forbes profile | Useful for independently reported biography and context. |
| Participant/originator | Project vote record, event organiser page | Best for proving that the claim/event was asserted or organised. |
| Press release | EIN/ABNewswire release | Useful for exact issuer statement and chronology; not independent validation. |
| Syndicated copy | Local news site carrying same wire copy | Adds distribution but should not be counted as a new independent source. |
| Owned network | One of the 11 project sites | Useful for topical architecture and first-party documentation; not external corroboration. |
Authority is claim-specific
No domain is universally “authoritative.” A corporate acquisition notice may be the strongest source for a job title; an independent search publication may be better for industry analysis. AEO evidence should therefore score the relationship between source and claim rather than assigning one global trust number.