E02¶


Research	R0002 — Research Standards for AI-Assisted Writing
Run	2026-03-13
Claim	C011
Source	SRC01
Evidence	SRC01-E02
Type	Absence of evidence

SPJ Code Lacks Formal Evidence Structures

URL: Not captured — experimental run

Extract¶

The SPJ Code of Ethics contains no formal evidence hierarchy (analogous to the evidence pyramid in clinical research), no calibrated uncertainty scale (analogous to ICD 203's probability language), and no structured bias assessment domains (analogous to ROBIS's four domains or Cochrane's Risk of Bias tool).

Relevance to Hypotheses¶

Hypothesis	Relationship	Strength
H1	Supports	Moderate — confirms absence of three specific features
H2	Supports	Moderate — confirms specific absences hold
H3	Contradicts	Moderate — the primary journalism code does not contain these features

Context¶

This is an absence-of-evidence finding. The SPJ Code was examined for the three specific features named in the claim, and none were found. Note that absence of evidence is not proof of nonexistence — the features could exist in other journalism standards not examined. However, the SPJ Code is the primary professional standard for American journalism.

Notes¶

The claim's specific absences (evidence hierarchies, uncertainty scales, bias assessment domains) are all features drawn from other fields (clinical research, intelligence analysis). Their absence from journalism is expected given the different epistemological traditions.