verificre

Verificre is a neologism used in information science and media literacy to describe a structured practice of verifying claims found in media and online content. It exists as both a verb (to verificre a claim) and a noun (the verificre method or framework). The term signals a move beyond ad hoc fact-checking toward standardized, reproducible procedures.

Origin and etymology: Verificre appears to have been coined in the early 2020s by researchers exploring rigorous verification workflows. The word combines the verb verify with a suffix suggesting a systematic process, aligning with other practice names in information ethics.

Definition and scope: A verificre process requests that practitioners evaluate a claim according to explicit criteria such as source reliability, evidence sufficiency, corroboration across independent sources, methodological transparency, and replicability of checks.

Methodology: Typical steps include identifying the claim, locating primary sources, assessing source credibility, gathering corroborating evidence, performing triangulation, assigning a confidence level, and documenting sources and methods for review.

Applications: Verificre is advocated in journalism, education, and platform moderation to standardize how claims are checked and recorded. An example would be a news article verifying a numerical statistic by cross-referencing government data, peer-reviewed studies, and official records, with a publicly documented verification log.

History and reception: Since its introduction, verificre has been described in several conceptual papers and adopted by some fact-checking initiatives as a framework rather than a mandatory protocol. Critics note that the approach can be time-consuming and may vary in interpretation across domains.

See also: verification, fact-checking, information literacy, source credibility, reproducibility.