Standards For Use Of Technology In Genealogical Research
Recommended by the National Genealogical Society


1. Genealogists take full responsibility for their work.

2. Be mindful that computers are tools.

3. Learn the capabilities and limits of equipment and software.  Use them only
when they are appropriate tools for the purpose.

4. Refuse to let computer software automatically embellish the work.

5. Treat compiled information from on-line sources or digital data bases like
information from other published sources.  Useful primarily as a guide to
locating original records, but not as evidence for a conclusion or assertion.

6. Accept digital images or enhancements of an original record as a satisfactory
substitute for the original only when there is reasonable assurance that the
image accurately reproduces the unaltered original.

7. Cite sources for data obtained on-line or from digital media with the same
care appropriate for sources on paper and other traditional media.

8. Enter data into a digital database only when its source can remain associated
with it.

9. Always cite the sources for information or data posted on-line or sent to
others.

10. Name the author of a digital file as its immediate source. Credit original
sources cited within the file. [Note well the distinction between original
sources and immediate sources.]

11. Preserve the integrity of data bases by evaluating the reliability of
downloaded data before incorporating it.

12. Whenever altering digital data, provide a description of the change that
will accompany the altered data whenever it is shared with others.

13. Actively oppose the proliferation of error, rumor, and fraud by personally
verifying or correcting information, or clearly noting it as unverified, before
passing it on to others.

14. Treat people on-line as courteously and civilly as they should be treated in
person. Do not allow the relative anonymity of the medium to degrade common
practices of etiquette.

15. Accept that technology has not changed the principles of genealogical
research, only some of the tools and procedures.


Copyright (c) 1997 by the National Genealogical Society. Permission is granted to
copy or publish this material provided it is reproduced in its entirety,
including this notice.

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