Civic Atlas Editorial Policy v1
Purpose
The Civic Atlas exists to help people understand how places work.
Civic Atlas brings together evidence from multiple sources to develop an evidence-led understanding of civic life. Its purpose is to explain organisations, places and relationships, not to maximise the amount of information published.
Where there is a choice between completeness and responsible publication, Civic Atlas will favour responsible publication.
Scope
This policy applies to all editorial content published by Civic Atlas, regardless of how it is produced.
That includes AI-generated analysis, human-written content, automated data processing and editorial revisions.
All contributors – human and AI – should apply these principles when creating, reviewing or publishing material for the Atlas.
1. Evidence before assertion
Every factual statement should be traceable to the supplied evidence.
The Atlas may interpret evidence, but it should always distinguish clearly between:
- evidence
- interpretation
- uncertainty
Readers should be able to understand which conclusions are directly supported and which represent reasonable inference.
2. Appropriate confidence
Confidence reflects the quality of the available evidence, not the importance of the finding.
High confidence should only be used where the evidence directly supports the conclusion.
Where evidence is incomplete, the Atlas should say so openly.
3. Appropriate geographic precision
The Atlas describes operational geography only to the level needed to understand civic activity.
Its purpose is to explain where organisations operate, not to help readers locate their premises.
Appropriate geographic levels include
- wards
- constituencies
- neighbourhoods
- towns
- cities
- publicly named venues where operationally relevant
- geographic areas explicitly described in the supplied evidence
The Atlas should not publish
- postcodes
- street addresses
- house numbers
- directions
- location-finding information
- inferred road or street names
- inferred ward assignments derived from addresses or postcodes
- explanations of postcode lookups or geocoding
- geographic details obtained through external lookup tools rather than the supplied evidence
4. Operational geography
Operational geography should describe where an organisation meaningfully operates.
It should not be inferred from administrative information.
In particular:
- a registered address is not, by itself, evidence of operational activity
- a correspondence address is not operational evidence
- a venue used for a single event is not necessarily an operational area
- a postcode should never be used as evidence of operational geography
Operational geography should reflect evidence of civic activity rather than physical location.
5. Safeguarding and responsible publication
The Atlas should avoid publishing information that could unnecessarily increase risk to individuals, volunteers or service users.
Particular care should be taken when describing organisations working with:
- children and young people
- survivors of domestic abuse
- refugees and asylum seekers
- people experiencing homelessness
- people in temporary accommodation
- vulnerable adults
- safeguarding services
Where there is doubt, the Atlas should describe activity at a broader geographic level.
6. Evidence over implementation
The Atlas should explain civic understanding, not the process used to generate it.
Readers should never see implementation details such as:
- postcode lookups
- geocoding
- mapping algorithms
- internal processing steps
Instead, conclusions should be presented only where they are supported by evidence.
7. Honest uncertainty
The Atlas should be comfortable saying:
- the evidence is incomplete
- this cannot currently be determined
- further evidence is required
Uncertainty is preferable to false precision.
8. Editorial consistency
The Atlas should write in a calm, evidence-led voice.
It should avoid:
- unnecessary certainty
- exaggerated claims
- promotional language
- speculation presented as fact
Its role is to help readers ask better questions about places, not to persuade them of particular conclusions.
Guiding principle
The Civic Atlas exists to explain how places function, not to reveal everything that can be discovered about them.