The Five-Axis Credibility Model

Source credibility is not a binary. It is a five-dimensional score. Authority: does the source have domain expertise and institutional position to know this information? Independence: does the source have incentives that could bias the information? Specificity: does the source provide verifiable details or vague assertions? Recency: how old is the information relative to the domain's rate of change? Corroboration: do independent sources confirm the same finding? Each axis scores 1 to 5. The composite score determines how much weight the information receives in your analysis.

## Source Credibility Scorecard

Source: [Name / URL]
Evaluated: [Date]
Domain: [What topic area this source covers]

| Axis          | Score | Rationale                    |
|---------------|-------|------------------------------|
| Authority     | ?/5   | [Domain expertise evidence]  |
| Independence  | ?/5   | [Bias/incentive assessment]  |
| Specificity   | ?/5   | [Detail level, verifiability]|
| Recency       | ?/5   | [Data age vs. domain tempo]  |
| Corroboration | ?/5   | [Independent confirmation]   |
| COMPOSITE     | ?/25  |                              |

Tier Assignment:
  21-25 = TIER 1 (Primary, high-weight)
  16-20 = TIER 2 (Supporting, moderate-weight)
  11-15 = TIER 3 (Contextual, low-weight)
  6-10  = TIER 4 (Unverified, flag-only)
  1-5   = TIER 5 (Unreliable, exclude)