The standards behind every publication
These are the rules that govern how we author, source, review, correct and license our work — the practical expression of our commitment to independent, reproducible research.
Standards only matter if they are written down and applied consistently. The commitments below apply to every publication, from a short commentary to a flagship report or a commissioned market study. They sit alongside our research approach and our independence policies, and they are overseen through our governance.
Seven standards we hold every study to
Authorship & attribution
Every publication carries named authors who are accountable for its content. We list contributor roles where a study has many hands, record ORCID-style identifiers, and credit external advisers and data providers.
We do not publish ghostwritten or sponsor-authored content under a researcher's name. If a study was commissioned, the report says so.
Evidence & sourcing
Claims are grounded in cited evidence — public statistics, primary fieldwork, licensed datasets or the peer-reviewed literature. We favour primary sources and name them so a reader can go back to the original.
We distinguish clearly between what the data show, what we infer from it, and where we are speculating. Uncertainty is reported, not smoothed over.
Peer review & external advice
Every draft is read by an internal editor for methods and framing, and key results are replicated by a second researcher who was not part of the original design. Flagship reports and datasets are also reviewed by at least one external adviser from outside the research team.
Reviewers assess whether the conclusions follow from the evidence and whether the limitations are stated fairly. A study is not published until those questions are settled.
Non-partisan language
We write in measured, evidence-led language. We avoid promotional or loaded framing, do not endorse parties, candidates or campaigns, and do not take institutional positions beyond what a given study supports.
Headlines and summaries must be defensible against the full report; we do not overstate a finding to make it travel further.
Corrections & versioning
Errors found after publication are corrected in a dated erratum attached to the original record. Substantial revisions are issued as a new version with a changelog, and superseded versions remain citable so the history of a finding stays visible.
Substantiated concerns about a published finding can be sent to enquiries@internationalresearchinstitute.org; we record the outcome against the publication.
Licensing & open access
Publications are released under a CC BY 4.0 licence with a permanent internal permalink, a series number and a copy-ready citation. Data, code and survey instruments are published alongside wherever licensing and privacy allow.
Open access and open data are how we invite scrutiny: findings should be checkable and reproducible by people outside the Institute.
Responsible use of data & AI
Fieldwork follows informed-consent and data-protection practice, and personal data are handled under strict confidentiality. Where computational or statistical tools materially shape an analysis, we document them in the methods note.
A named researcher is accountable for every published claim. Automated tools may assist analysis, but they do not author findings or replace human review.
Standards you can hold us to
See how they read in a finished publication, or ask us a question.