2.3.4. Authentication of Oral and Written Information

When your only source of information about a certain piece of knowledge or a certain term comes from a professional, a specialist in a field, such as a teacher, trainer or worker employed in that field, the expertise and reputation of that person must be widely recognized, and the source of the information provided must be clearly acknowledged. The information should then either be corroborated by somebody else or confirmed through further research in written documentation. This also applies to any comment or suggestion from a terminologist on the content of the collected documentation.

At the very least, verbal permission must be obtained from an oral source before you use that person's name and title as a reference for specific information in your terminology record, case file or database. You could also send them a printout of the record containing such references so that its accuracy may be confirmed.

Permission must be obtained in writing from the publisher of a document before you cite substantial portions of a given source in commercial terminological products, such as CD-ROMs or publications meant for sale, and databases that are made available online through paid subscriptions. It is usually not necessary to obtain permission to cite individual paragraphs or a limited number of excerpts from a given author or from in-house documentation when the organization is the owner of both the terminological product and the document cited. In both cases, such citations must be always followed by the complete reference of the source.