Protocol status: This protocol tests traceability and agreement. It does not certify the truth, legality, or commercial adequacy of a product claim.
Choose attributes and channels
Define the product set, attribute set, source systems, and published destinations. High-risk claims and regulated fields may require specialist review outside this operational protocol.
Assign one observation to a product-attribute-channel combination at a fixed time. Keep retired and unavailable records visible in population counts.
Document allowable transformations
A published label may differ from a source value because of formatting, units, channel taxonomy, or approved merchandising language. Record the transformation rule and owner instead of treating every difference as an error.
Unsupported transformations and missing sources should remain exceptions. Do not infer evidence from a similar product or a previously published page.
Build reconstructable evidence
For every observation, retain the source artifact, version, effective time, destination value, publication time where available, and reviewer outcome. Stable links are preferable to context-free screenshots.
Separate source truth from system-of-record designation. The organization must name the governing source; the reviewer should not choose whichever system matches the destination.
Use independent checks
Two reviewers should evaluate a blinded overlap sample using a versioned codebook. Report agreement, dispute categories, adjudication, and changes to rules.
Reopen a quality sample from the study record alone. If evidence can be understood only through the first reviewer’s memory, lineage is incomplete.
Report scope and uncertainty
Publish source coverage, matched, transformed, missing, conflicting, inaccessible, and unresolved counts. Show examples that challenge the dominant pattern.
Traceability does not substantiate a claim or certify compliance. Product, legal, safety, and commercial owners remain responsible for source quality and approval.
Sources and boundaries
These sources provide public context for the protocol. Their inclusion does not mean they endorse this site or that the proposed study has been conducted.