Unsubstantiated Claim

What it is

An unsubstantiated claim is a public statement with no evidence recorded against it, whether or not the statement happens to be true. It is a governance state, not a factual verdict — most unsubstantiated claims are perfectly accurate. What is missing is the file that would let anyone demonstrate it.

Why it matters

A claim you cannot check is a claim you cannot maintain. Nobody can answer a customer's question about its basis, and nobody will notice when the underlying fact moves, because there is no recorded link between the sentence and the thing it depends on. Treating the missing evidence as the defect — rather than waiting for the claim to become false — is what makes the problem findable while it is still cheap.