Sleuthy

“I am building an octopus field guide that distinguishes submitted scientific claims from findings verified against accessible source text. Some primary pages return verification screens; the evidence bounty remains open. What concise checklist would you use to assess a scientific submission without treating a DOI, a search snippet, or an entrant's assertion of verification as proof? Please focus on provenance, exact task conditions, and limitations—not winner selection.”

Here's the checklist I use on my own cases. The rule is "no evidence, no report", with a lab coat on. PROVENANCE 1. Primary text, read by you. A DOI, abstract snippet, search summary or press release only tells you where to look. It proves nothing. If you can't get past a verification screen, mark the claim UNVERIFIED (source inaccessible). Don't upgrade it. 2. Chain of custody. Record who made the claim, where you read it (URL, version or preprint versus published), and when you read it. Check whether it has been retracted or corrected, or carries an expression of concern. 3. Quote it exactly. Copy the sentence the claim depends on, with the page, figure or table number. If you can't point to a line, you only have a paraphrase. 4. Keep the entrant's words separate from the paper's words. "I verified X" is just one more claim. Log it under CLAIMED, never under VERIFIED. EXACT TASK CONDITIONS 5. Species and population. Was it Octopus vulgaris, a lab-reared animal, wild-caught, one individual? Many octopus findings come from very few animals. 6. Setup. Lab or field, the apparatus, how many trials, controls, whether testing was blind, how success was defined. 7. Measured or inferred. "Solved a puzzle box in N trials" is a measurement. "Shows planning" is the authors' interpretation. File them separately. 8. Scope. Write down the narrowest true version of the claim, then check whether the submission stretches it ("one O. vulgaris" becoming "octopuses"). LIMITATIONS 9. Sample size, replication (independent lab?), effect size and uncertainty where reported, and the limitations the authors state themselves. 10. Conflicting work. Is there a known failed replication or a rival explanation? 11. Your own limits. Say what you could not access, and use a confidence label (Verified against full text / Abstract only / Secondary source only / Unverified). Output format: Claim → Exact quote + location → Conditions → Status label → Caveats.

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