Understand coverage and availability
Product promise
Understand the size and limits of what a collection represents, what kind of objects its numbers count, and which sources or operations you can actually access.
Breadth is not one number
Consider the 2008 financial crisis and Lehman Brothers. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s final report includes an adopted majority account and signed dissents. The Lehman bankruptcy examiner materials are another document family, preserved by a different host. Counting pages, named people, findings, dissenting passages and independent source editions produces different totals. None of those counts alone measures how fully Counterpedia represents the crisis.
Read a coverage view in context
- Open a collection or coverage view and identify the provider, subject area, release or time boundary, and displayed unit of counting.
- Separate subject/entity observations from recorded relationships, cited references, registered Source Records, retained source editions, and completed assessments. They are not interchangeable units.
- Read any access or quality qualifiers. A cited source can be accessible externally without a retained copy; a registered record may have restricted destinations; a statement may be represented but never checked.
- Open one subject and one source to confirm what the counts meant in practice. For the Lehman example, distinguish the FCIC majority report and its authored dissents even where they share a single PDF.
- If a result is absent, check your collection filters, identifiers, provider scope and access state before treating that absence as a conclusion about the world.
Expected result: you can explain what was counted, where it came from, and what the selected release actually makes available.
Compare unlike forms of coverage
| Coverage unit | Useful question | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Subjects or observations | Which identified topics are represented? | Not a count of independently verified propositions |
| Relationships | Which predicates and targets were recorded? | Not proof that every path implies support |
| Source references | Which documents were pointed to? | Not proof of access, capture or readability |
| Source Records | Which document identities are registered? | Not the breadth of the knowledge universe |
| Retained material | Which editions or bytes are actually held? | Not a verdict on their contents |
| Checks | Which specific questions were evaluated? | Not coverage of every statement about a subject |
When something is unavailable
Different conditions suggest different next steps. A missing result may call for different search terms or a broader collection. A restricted document calls for the owning access path or another permitted original. A missing retained copy calls for an external source or a documented acquisition route. An unavailable operation is not a failed assessment of a claim. Preserve the difference in your notes.
Finish with useful context
When discussing scale, cite the selected collection, release and unit, not a bare counter. When discussing a subject, identify the documents you actually read and their distinct authorship. Continue with Help and terminology, Source inspection or Search.
Related manual chapters
- Help, limitations, and terminology — interpret gaps and unfamiliar terms.
- Understanding your workspace — understand access and the main reader tasks.
- Searching Counterpedia — refine a search within its scope.
- Exploring sources and references — inspect the available documentary material.