Research Integrity Notice
- The archive distinguishes documented facts from allegations, estimates and disputed interpretations.
- Inclusion does not depend solely on the religious identity of a perpetrator.
- Religious or identity-based motive is classified according to available evidence.
- Historical casualty estimates may vary among credible sources, and the archive preserves significant uncertainty where appropriate.
- Records may be revised as additional reliable evidence becomes available.
Two levels of documentation
An Individual Incident is a particular attack, killing, temple attack, abduction or similar event. A Historical Event / Campaign is a broader episode that may contain many documented incidents. Keeping them separate prevents a prolonged historical episode from being treated as equivalent to a single attack, and prevents double counting.
Evidence classification
Every record carries one classification. A perpetrator's religion, ethnicity or nationality is never treated as evidence of motive. Classification relies on evidence such as statements during the incident, selection of victims, attacks on religious institutions, credible witness testimony, official findings, court records, government reports, credible human-rights documentation, established historical scholarship and reliable contemporaneous reporting.
- Religious Targeting Documented
- Reliable evidence shows religious identity formed part of the targeting.
- Religious / Identity Motive Reported
- Credible sources report a religious or identity motive; not conclusively established.
- Motive Disputed
- Credible accounts differ about whether religious identity was a motive.
- Motive Undetermined
- Available reliable evidence does not establish the motive.
- Historical / Contextual Record
- Included for historical context; not itself a finding of targeting.
Sources
No record can become public without at least one source. Multiple independent sources are preferred for serious or disputed claims. Each source is labelled by quality:
- Primary / Official
- High-Quality Secondary
- Academic
- Contemporaneous News Report
- Community Documentation
- Unverified Lead
Material labelled Unverified Lead never supports publication on its own and is never shown publicly.
Research workflow
Records move through: Research Lead → Source Collection → Under Review → Verified → Published → Disputed → Needs Revision → Archived. Only records that have been verified and then published appear in the public archive. Every change is logged with the editor, date, previous value and new value.
Figures and uncertainty
Confirmed figures and reported or estimated ranges are stored and displayed separately. Disputed estimates are never converted into exact numbers. Archive statistics are calculated directly from published records and describe only the archive's current coverage — not the full historical scale of any event.
Images
The archive does not show graphic images of bodies, blood or human remains, and never uses AI-generated portraits of real victims. Images appear only when licensing or permission is recorded.
Documentation and remembrance
The Global Documentation Archive is a factual research database. The Virtual Memorial is a remembrance experience that draws only on verified, published records.