Editorial responsibility
Data Center Scope research is published under the editorial name Adam Williams. Adam is responsible for the published editorial position and can be contacted at [email protected].
Research before narrative
A conclusion should follow the evidence rather than a headline being chosen first and sources collected afterward to support it.
Quantitative claims should be traceable to a source, calculation or clearly identified assumption.
Primary evidence is preferred
Government data, technical documentation, standards, utility information and original specialist research are preferred when they are available and relevant.
More detail is available in the Research Methodology.
Commercial relationships
Advertising does not purchase favorable coverage, rankings or inclusion in research.
Data Center Scope does not alter a technical or economic conclusion because a company advertises on the site.
Sponsored material
If sponsored material is published in the future, it should be labeled so that a reasonable reader can distinguish it from independent editorial research.
Corrections
Material factual or calculation errors should be corrected when identified. Evidence supporting a correction can be submitted through the contact page.
Conflicts and uncertainty
Relevant uncertainty should not be removed simply to make an article sound more decisive.
When different credible sources support different ranges, the difference should be explained when it materially affects the conclusion.
Fact, estimate and model are not the same thing
Data Center Scope distinguishes between a figure directly reported by a source, a calculation derived from published inputs and an editorial estimate used to explore a scenario. A derived number should not be presented as though the original source published that exact result.
This distinction matters particularly in data center economics because a small change in the definition of MW, utilization, PUE, project scope or contract structure can materially change the answer.
Vendor and manufacturer sources
Manufacturer documentation can be the strongest source for the specifications of that manufacturer's own equipment. It is not automatically neutral evidence for a universal market claim. Vendor research is therefore evaluated according to the question it is being used to answer.
Market ranges
When credible sources publish materially different cost ranges, Data Center Scope does not automatically average them into a single number. The first step is to determine whether geography, project size, cooling architecture, date, construction boundary or methodology explains the difference.
Calculations and tools
Interactive calculators must expose the assumptions that materially drive their outputs. Defaults are reference cases, not hidden claims that every facility operates under the same conditions. Calculator results should be reproducible from the inputs shown to the user.
Updates
A page can be updated when a material benchmark changes, a stronger source becomes available, a calculation needs correction or new infrastructure conditions alter the usefulness of the existing analysis. Cosmetic edits do not necessarily imply that the underlying research has changed.
Editorial review
Before material is treated as publishable Data Center Scope research, the objective is to check the relationship between the claim and its evidence, the arithmetic of important derived figures, internal consistency and whether limitations that could change the conclusion have been disclosed.
What editorial independence means here
Operators, suppliers and commercial partners may have useful data, but commercial relevance does not give a source control over the conclusion. The same principle applies to advertising: monetization supports the publication but does not purchase a particular editorial outcome.