S02¶


Research	R0050 — Journalism and Other Truth-Seeking Disciplines
Run	2026-03-31
Query	Q001
Search	S02

WebSearch — BBC Editorial Guidelines, Bellingcat, and SPJ verification standards

Summary¶

Field	Value
Source/Database	WebSearch
Query terms	Three searches: (1) "BBC Editorial Guidelines verification standards source reliability tiering methodology" (2) "Bellingcat verification methodology structured evidence evaluation open source investigation" (3) "SPJ Society of Professional Journalists verification standards evidence evaluation methodology code of ethics"
Filters	None
Results returned	30
Results selected	3
Results rejected	27

Selected Results¶

Result	Title	URL	Rationale
S02-R01	BBC Editorial Guidelines Overview	https://www.scribd.com/doc/94959012/BBC-Editorial-Guidelines-in-Full-1	BBC Editorial Guidelines source material
S02-R02	Bellingcat Guides & Handbooks	https://bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/resources/guides-and-handbooks	Primary Bellingcat methodology resource
S02-R03	SPJ Code of Ethics	https://www.spj.org/spj-code-of-ethics/	Primary SPJ ethical framework

Rejected Results¶

Result	Title	URL	Rationale
S02-R04	Various BBC reliability assessments	Multiple URLs	Third-party assessments of BBC reliability, not BBC's own methodology
S02-R05	Bellingcat Online Investigation Toolkit	https://bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit	Tool listing without methodology documentation
S02-R06	SPJ Ethics position papers	https://www.spj.org/ethics/	Portal page, not methodology content

Notes¶

Searches targeted the three remaining named organizations. The BBC search returned mostly third-party assessments of BBC credibility rather than BBC's own methodology documents. Bellingcat results focused on tools rather than structured evaluation methodology. SPJ results confirmed the code is principle-based rather than methodology-based.