README
Question, result, scope, environment, reproduction route, known limits.
Evidence release
A result an independent reviewer can challenge
The capstone is not a campaign plan or visibility promise. It is a bounded research release in which every headline claim resolves to sources, queries or data, transformations, analysis, uncertainty, limitations, and a versioned decision record.
- Effort
- 18–30 hours across course
- Defense
- 8 min result + 7 min questions
- Revision
- 48 hours
Question contract
One system question, one declared population, one bounded conclusion
Acceptable
“For the declared English informational query strata and frozen open retrieval stack, does evidence-first page structure change source retrieval and claim support under a fixed corpus and budget?”
Not acceptable
“How do we guarantee that all AI engines recommend Brand X?” It lacks an observable system boundary, defensible population, authorized intervention, estimand, and uncertainty.
Milestones
Review before the cost compounds
- W06
Question and query universe
Bound the system, surface, population, query strata, and evidence ceiling.
- W08
Pre-analysis plan
Freeze estimand, outcomes, exclusions, analysis, stop rules, and validity boundary before inspecting outcomes.
- W10
Evidence and intervention review
Pass claim/source, factual-equivalence, authorization, and rollback checks.
- W13
Measurement release candidate
Validate event logs, uncertainty, missingness, sensitivity, incidents, and deviations.
- W15
Safety and governance gate
Resolve abuse, privacy, accessibility, licensing, status, jurisdiction, and residual-risk findings.
- W16
Defense and revision
Present, answer evidence-lineage questions, revise within 48 hours, and regenerate checksums.
Required bundle
The release is a traceability network
Research brief
Motivation, estimand, design, finding, uncertainty, decision.
Claim ledger
Atomic public claims, exact evidence, disposition, reviewer state.
Data/query manifest
Identity, provenance, schema, license, checksum, exclusions.
Analysis
Code/notebook, environment lock, logs, tests, supplied-output route.
Figures
Source data, type label, caption, alt text/long description.
Deviation record
Departures from plan, incidents, missingness, negative results.
Risk and rights
Authorization, privacy, safety, accessibility, license, governance.
Release record
Version, checksums, change log, review findings, response note.
Defense and revision
Critique must be able to change the release
30%Evidence integrityComplete, non-circular claim-to-artifact lineage.
25%Methods and reproductionPrimary result rebuilds under the declared route.
20%Inference and limitationsUncertainty, alternatives, and scope control the conclusion.
15%Safety and governanceAuthorization, privacy, license, accessibility, and risk gates pass.
10%Defense and revisionAnswers locate evidence; critique produces material revision.
The 48-hour response note names each finding, action, changed artifact, and remaining disagreement. At least one claim must be explicitly reconsidered; weakening or removing it is a sign of evidence control, not failure.