How a number gets onto this site.

24 published pieces carry 103 listed sources between them. This page is the standard those sources are held to, written down so a reader can check whether we followed it.

The rule that outranks everything else

No invented statistics, results, percentages, dates, company names or quotes. Ever. Where a figure is needed and does not exist in a citable form, the piece says so and writes around the gap. It does not estimate, round toward a better headline, or reach for a number that is merely plausible.

Source hierarchy

Load-bearing claims are sourced in this order, and a piece says when it had to settle:

1. Primary filings and releases — 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 20-F, S-1, earnings releases and prepared remarks, published directly by the company.
2. Official statistics and regulators — central banks, statistical agencies, the IMF, standard-setters, court records.
3. Peer-reviewed and working-paper research, with the sample and method stated.
4. Established financial press reporting on the above, used when the primary document is paywalled or unpublished, and named as reporting rather than filing.
5. Vendor material and survey roundups — used only when nothing better exists, always labelled, and never for a headline figure.

What disqualifies a figure

• It cannot be traced to an originating document, only to another article citing it.
• Its sample, date or definition is unstated, so it cannot be compared to anything.
• It comes from a vendor measuring its own product's benefit.
• It is a projection presented as a result.

Charts and tables

Every chart names its source and date inside the figure itself, not only in the references. Axes start at zero unless the caption says otherwise and explains why. Where a chart shows a range rather than a point estimate, it shows the range.

How AI is used

Drafting and research assistance are AI-assisted, under human editorial control and the standard above. That assistance does not extend to figures: a number reaches publication only once it has been traced to the source named in the references, and a claim that cannot be traced is cut rather than softened. The byline is accountable for what publishes either way.

Corrections

If a number here is wrong, the correction is published in the same place the error was, with the date and what changed — see corrections. Silent edits to a published figure are not acceptable; the correction note stays on the page.

Independence

Zan Digital takes no payment for coverage, and no piece is written, reviewed or approved by a company it covers. Where a commercial relationship exists with a named company, the piece discloses it inline.