Research methodology & data integrity

TransformerPath is an independent, editorially neutral transformer-industry intelligence and engineering platform. Everything we publish is grounded in a source, tagged with a confidence and a last-verified date, and correctable on request. This page explains how.

Source hierarchy

We prefer primary, authoritative sources and treat lower-authority sources as supporting evidence that must be corroborated. The hierarchy, from strongest to weakest:

Tier	Examples
Primary	Official manufacturer announcements, utility / operator publications, government and regulator publications, stock-exchange filings, official tenders.
Secondary	High-quality and industry news media, specialist trade publications, established sector analysis.
Supporting	Conference/event programmes, industry directories, professional-network posts (LinkedIn). Used only to corroborate, never as the sole basis for a technically or commercially important claim.

Researched vs company-reported information

We separate two kinds of information:

Independently sourced — established from public, verifiable evidence (primary or corroborated secondary sources) by TransformerPath's research. This carries our independent editorial weight.

Company-reported — information supplied by a company itself (for example a self-submitted factory, product or certification update). This is labelled as company-provided and is not merged into independent editorial intelligence without review. Company submissions do not change a company's research confidence, its editorial treatment, or any factual data we hold — only its presentation.

Confidence

We use a three-level confidence scale — never fake mathematical percentages. Confidence reflects source quality and corroboration for a specific fact, not a blanket rating of a company.

Level	What it means
High	Confirmed by a primary source, or corroborated by multiple independent reliable sources.
Medium	Strong single-source, or partially corroborated; treat as likely but re-verify before reliance.
Limited	A keyword-matched or weakly sourced reference; evidence of a capability or event, not a confirmation.

Where a system (for example a keyword-matching pipeline) automatically associates an item, it defaults to Limited confidence and is labelled accordingly — we never upgrade a fact's confidence without a corroborating source.

Claim types & attribution

We tag how a fact is established so a reader can judge it. Key labels: INDEPENDENTLY_SOURCED, COMPANY_REPORTED, INFERRED, UNVERIFIED. A company development is displayed because it references that company; it is not presented as an independently verified award, order or project attribution unless the source explicitly confirms one.

Transformer-scope grading

Transformer-relevant projects carry a scope grade so a grid/substation project is never misread as confirmed transformer equipment. CONFIRMED = transformer equipment explicitly documented · INFERRED = reasonably inferred from the substation/grid scope · UNKNOWN = not yet documented. Inference is always shown as inference, never as confirmation.

Corrections

Every company, project, utility and intelligence page offers "suggest a correction". A correction is reviewed against a source before it is applied — it is never auto-overwritten. Tell us the entity, the field, the current value, your proposed correction and a source/document, and the correction stays pending until reviewed.

Last verified

Each entity and fact carries a last verified date — the last time we confirmed it against its source. Dates are shown so you can judge currency. TransformerPath data is a snapshot of published public information on that date; always carry out your own due diligence before a commercial decision.

Commercial independence

A company that pays TransformerPath (verified listing, sponsor, advertising, RFQ eligibility, enhanced presentation, logo, catalogue, contact) receives no higher research confidence, better editorial treatment, preferential Intel, fake rankings or suppressed negative factual data. Commercial products change presentation, never research integrity. Research data remains editorially independent.

Neutral institutional voice

TransformerPath maintains a neutral institutional voice. We do not name individuals in public editorial content, we do not carry unrelated company branding, and we do not rank or score companies (no "best manufacturer", no quality rating) unless a future transparent methodology justifies it.