How to Verify a Source
A source can be useful without automatically proving every statement made about it. Source verification means checking what the source actually says, who produced it, when it was produced and whether it supports the specific claim.
A practical source check
- Identify the original source rather than relying only on a repost or summary.
- Check the author, organization and publication context.
- Check the publication or update date.
- Read the relevant passage instead of relying only on a headline or quotation.
- Compare the source's evidence with the exact claim being made.
- Look for important qualifications, limitations or changes in circumstances.
Why context matters
A genuine source can still be quoted out of context, applied to a different population or used after the underlying situation has changed.
What the Supience tool cannot do here
The Supience Information Check can flag when a passage contains citation-like signals — a year, a journal name, an author, a study reference — but it cannot open the source, verify that it exists, or check whether it supports the claim. Source verification, as described above, remains a manual process.
The tool treats a citation as a signal for investigation, not as evidence that the claim has been supported.