Traceability Profile Governance#

Noema’s strongest local verifier is selected by the benchmark metadata field traceability_profile_requested. The field asks Noema to apply a fixed, content-identified minimum set of traceability checks. It does not claim that a result is scientifically valid, fairly compared, independently reproduced, legally cleared, archived, or accepted for publication.

The current profile is noema.traceability.v2. A canonical benchmark that requests it must bind both that identifier and the exact digest returned by publication_verification_profile_binding(). The digest covers the normative I1–I6 definition and the verifier’s check-to-predicate semantics.

The current local binding is content-digest based, not a signature. An officially distributed profile should additionally be anchored by a repository or release signature, or an equivalent transparency and custody mechanism; local digest conformance alone does not establish who authorized or signed the profile.

Ownership and change control#

The Noema maintainers own the profile definition in noema_lab.core.publication_profile, its public schema bindings, and its conformance tests. A released profile identifier is immutable:

  • editorial clarification that does not change machine semantics may retain the identifier only when the canonical digest is unchanged;

  • adding, removing, weakening, or reinterpreting a required predicate creates a new profile identifier and digest;

  • study authors may add stricter checks, but may not remove profile requirements while reporting a current-profile pass; and

  • a profile change is reviewed together with schemas, verifier behavior, migration notes, and positive and negative conformance tests.

Request-field migration#

publication_ready is a deprecated compatibility alias for traceability_profile_requested in benchmark packs and benchmark results. Stored documents with only the old field remain readable. If both fields are present, both must be booleans and must agree; disagreement fails closed. New readers and result writers use the reader-accurate field as canonical; writers do not add the deprecated alias to new results.

This migration applies only to the benchmark profile trigger. Dataset-rights records and returned model packages have separate publication-readiness fields with different meanings and are not renamed by this policy.

Removal of the alias requires a separately announced schema-breaking release after shipped packs, stored results, static-demo consumers, and external integrations have had a documented migration window.

Conformance levels#

Noema reports local conformance without collapsing external obligations into one badge:

State

Meaning

Profile not requested

Local evidence may still verify, but it is not evaluated against the strongest profile.

Requested, current_profile_fail

The exact current profile was missing, substituted, or at least one applicable local predicate failed.

Requested, current_profile_pass

The canonical tier, exact profile binding, and every applicable local I1–I6 predicate passed.

External status

Archival custody, independent reproduction, scientific fairness, legal clearance, and venue acceptance remain separate and are not established by a local pass.

The verifier report preserves these dimensions explicitly. Consumers should use traceability_profile_requested, verdict_class, profile_binding_status, and the individual status-vector fields instead of inventing a generic “publication ready” state.