{ "model": { "rank": 2258, "code": "thing-q46857", "model_id": "vr.tr.scientific-method", "name": "scientific method", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the scientific method by steps, variants, evidence quality and limits, and help evaluate claims.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q46857/", "tier": 2, "score": 111, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "sham comparator", "Celsius temperature scale", "research tool", "health impact assessment", "microscopic technique", "hypothetico-deductive model", "sequence analysis", "medical method", "materials testing", "social science methodology", "randomized experiment", "diatom analysis", "triangulation", "methodological pluralism", "archeological method", "dactyloscopy", "geothermobarometry", "Confirmation", "laboratory study", "plot sampling", "isogenic human disease models", "phenomenology", "psychology research method", "radiometric dating", "linguistic reconstruction", "Baconian method", "assessment method", "well logging", "surveillance research method", "OHERIC", "AdS/QCD correspondence", "axiomatic method", "choice modeling", "Experience sampling method", "expert elicitation", "genetic analysis", "method of detecting extrasolar planets", "online research method", "specific absorption rate over 1g tissue as applicable to the head", "specific absorption rate over 1g tissue as applicable to the body" ], "aliasCount": 106, "merged": 106, "knownIn": 111, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q46857", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q46857", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T09:12:59Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q46857", "registryId": "vr.tr.scientific-method", "name": "scientific method", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q46857/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.scientific-method", "name": "scientific method", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the scientific method by steps, variants, evidence quality and limits, and help evaluate claims.", "definition": "A systematic approach to building knowledge through observation, forming hypotheses, making predictions, testing them by experiment or observation, and revising theories, with controls, replication and peer review.", "what_it_is_for": "Producing reliable, testable knowledge.", "affordances": [ "design a fair test", "evaluate study quality", "distinguish science from pseudoscience", "teach scientific thinking" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Testable claims", "Controls and replication", "Open to revision", "Not a single fixed recipe" ], "appearance": "Hypotheses, experiments, data, analyses and publications.", "visual_identification": [ "Hypothesis, prediction, test, conclusion", "Controls and blinding such as sham comparators", "Methods vary by field" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "hypothetico-deductive method", "experimental method with controls", "observational and field methods", "computational and modelling methods", "meta-analysis and systematic review" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "scholarly method", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is used by", "target": "science", "why": "practice" }, { "relation": "produces", "target": "evidence", "why": "output" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "inference", "why": "reasoning" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Research integrity codes", "Reporting guidelines such as CONSORT and PRISMA", "Research ethics review" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confirmation bias", "p-hacking and selective reporting", "Overclaiming from single studies" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "steps", "name": "Steps", "description": "How it works.", "rationale": "Steps structure inquiry.", "layers": [ { "id": "hypothesis", "name": "Hypothesis", "description": "Testable claim.", "findings": [ { "id": "hypothesis-finding", "name": "Hypothesis", "description": "Hypothesis.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the hypothesis testable and falsifiable?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "What prediction follows?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "test", "name": "Test", "description": "Experiment or observation.", "findings": [ { "id": "test-finding", "name": "Test", "description": "Testing.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is the prediction tested, with which controls?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How large is the sample?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "quality", "name": "Quality", "description": "Evidence strength.", "rationale": "Quality varies.", "layers": [ { "id": "design", "name": "Design", "description": "Controls and blinding.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Design", "description": "Study design.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the design control for bias, for example with randomisation or blinding?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Was it preregistered?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "replication", "name": "Replication", "description": "Confirmation.", "findings": [ { "id": "replication-finding", "name": "Replication", "description": "Replication.", "questions": [ { "text": "Has the result been replicated independently?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is there a systematic review?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evaluation", "name": "Evaluation", "description": "Claims.", "rationale": "Claims need checking.", "layers": [ { "id": "claims", "name": "Claims", "description": "Science or not.", "findings": [ { "id": "claims-finding", "name": "Claims", "description": "Evaluating claims.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a claim based on scientific method or on anecdote?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "What evidence supports it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "uncertainty", "name": "Uncertainty", "description": "Limits.", "findings": [ { "id": "uncertainty-finding", "name": "Uncertainty", "description": "Uncertainty.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the limits and uncertainties?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are they reported?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "teaching", "name": "Teaching", "description": "Learning.", "rationale": "Scientific thinking can be taught.", "layers": [ { "id": "fair-test", "name": "Fair test", "description": "Activities.", "findings": [ { "id": "fair-test-finding", "name": "Fair test", "description": "Fair tests.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a fair test be designed at school?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which variables are controlled?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "variants", "name": "Variants", "description": "Across fields.", "findings": [ { "id": "variants-finding", "name": "Variants", "description": "Field variants.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does the method differ across fields?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is there one scientific method?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should method variants be separate entries?", "How should reporting guidelines be linked?", "How should field differences be recorded?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a scientific method, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain the scientific method by steps, variants, evidence quality and limits, and help evaluate claims.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: sham comparator, Celsius temperature scale, research tool, health impact assessment, microscopic technique, hypothetico-deductive model, sequence analysis, medical method, materials testing, social science methodology, randomized experiment, diatom analysis.", "106 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 111 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a scientific method, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "sham comparator", "Celsius temperature scale", "research tool", "health impact assessment", "microscopic technique", "hypothetico-deductive model", "sequence analysis", "medical method", "materials testing", "social science methodology", "randomized experiment", "diatom analysis" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 111 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 106 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one scientific method from another, and a scientific method from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a scientific method sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a scientific method from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a scientific method passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a scientific method between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a scientific method, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a scientific method is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a scientific method says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a scientific method contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a scientific method and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What scientific method studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does scientific method take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does scientific method establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where scientific method is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark scientific method as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place scientific method, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a scientific method came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a scientific method and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a scientific method is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a scientific method, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a scientific method, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a scientific method is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }