How information is organized and researched.
The Alien Archive draws on several kinds of source material, and keeps them separate. A reader should always be able to tell whether they are looking at a declassified document, a witness statement, or a cultural tradition — because the weight of each is different.
Source types
Government records
Declassified files, official statements, and agency correspondence released under FOIA or equivalent disclosure.
Declassified documents
The primary documentary layer — case files, investigative notes, and internal reports made public.
Contemporary reporting
Newspaper and broadcast coverage from the time of the event, used to establish what was reported then rather than reconstructed later.
Witness accounts
Firsthand statements attributed to named witnesses where available, and clearly labeled as reports rather than established fact.
Books and historical research
Secondary scholarship and monographs, used for context and cross-referenced against primary material where possible.
Folklore and cultural accounts
Traditions and widely repeated stories, treated as a distinct category — cultural record, not observational record.
Five categories of information
The most important habit of the research desk is keeping these five categories distinct, on the page and in the language used. A sighting being reported is not the same as a sighting being confirmed; a tradition is not the same as a document.
Established by records that can be pointed to — a declassified file, a radar log, a dated official statement, a contemporaneous news report.
Stated by a witness or source but not independently confirmed. The report exists; the event it describes is not thereby established.
Actively contested. More than one account exists, and the research desk presents the accounts rather than choosing between them.
Part of the cultural tradition around a case — widely repeated, often embellished, not necessarily originating in observation.
Inference, interpretation, or hypothesis. Always labeled as such, and never presented as fact.
How a research entry is built
A research entry begins with the documentary record — what is established by sources that can be pointed to. Contemporary reporting is used to establish what was reported at the time, before later retellings set in.
Witness accounts are attributed to the witnesses and labeled as reports. Where a conventional explanation exists for a case, it is included. Where accounts conflict, the conflict is reported rather than resolved in the archive's voice.
Folklore and speculation are separated from the documentary record and clearly labeled, so that the cultural life of a case can be studied without being mistaken for the case itself.
See the editorial standards for how this material is reviewed before publication, and the about page for what the archive is and is not.
Contribute a source
If you have primary material — a declassified file, a contemporaneous news clipping, or a firsthand account — that bears on a record in the archive, write to the desk via the contact page.