Method & sources
How MassageData decides what to publish, where its facts come from, how they are reviewed, and what happens when we get something wrong. Every review badge on this site links here.
Source tiers
Sources are shared, registered objects — not inline links. Each is assigned a tier that determines what it may support.
Primary legal & official
Statutes, administrative rules, board websites and orders, FSMTB/NCBTMB official publications, federal databases
Any Claim, including requirement values
Authoritative organizational
Professional associations, accreditors, NAIC, state consumer guides
Concepts and context; never a jurisdiction's requirement value alone
Reputable secondary
Peer-reviewed literature, established textbooks, quality journalism
Educational articles and background; flagged if it contradicts T1
Uncorroborated
Forums, vendor marketing, other aggregator sites
Nothing. May prompt investigation; never cited as support
How a record gets published
Every structured record — a state page, a CE record, an exam-domain record — moves through the same workflow. No stage may be skipped.
- 01DraftRecord drafted against the template schema; every field marked pending.
- 02SourceEach Claim linked to a registered T1/T2 Source with a retrieval date.
- 03VerifyEach Claim is checked against the passage in its current source that supports it, and the review is recorded with its date, sources and outcome.
- 04PublishRecord goes live, after automated checks and the Founder's approval of the release, with as-of dates and a publication receipt.
- 05Re-reviewEach record carries its own review schedule and is reviewed again when a source or rule changes. Corrections follow the evidence.
What a record claims about itself
Every value on a state record carries one of five knowledge states. The state is the record’s claim about its own certainty, and it is always named in words on the record itself.
- Verified
- We checked the cited source on the stated date and the requirement exists as published. The date is the claim: it says when we looked, not that the rule is permanent.
- Verified not applicable
- We checked and there is no such requirement, or the question does not apply in this jurisdiction. This is a complete answer carrying the same weight as a value, not a gap where one is missing.
- Bounded
- We know part of the answer and can say exactly where our knowledge stops. The boundary is stated in words and the fuller source is linked. A bounded finding is the edge of what we know, never an error.
- Not yet reviewed
- Queued, with nothing asserted yet. No value is shown before a record is drafted and sourced, because an empty row is more honest than a guessed one.
- Review needed
- Published sources disagree, or a source carries superseded wording. Both readings are cited with their retrieval dates and neither is shown as fact until the current rule is confirmed. Review needed never means hidden; it means honestly uncertain.
What the badges mean
Every Claim on the record was verified against its cited source on the stated date. The date is the claim: it says when we looked, not that the rule is permanent.
The record's structure is published but its values have not completed independent verification. Draft records exist so reviewers and readers can see the schema working — they are labeled so no one mistakes structure for fact.
Published sources disagree — a docketed change against a rule still in force, or two official pages that differ. Both are cited with retrieval dates, and neither value is shown as fact until the current rule is confirmed.
An atypical model or detail is under study and does not yet map honestly onto our record structure. The record publishes when the mapping is honest — structure first, claims only when sourced.
Queued for review. No data is shown before a record is drafted and sourced — an empty row is more honest than a guessed one.
Something changed in the evidence — a source moved, a rule was proposed, an error was reported, or a source carries superseded wording. Affected Claims are flagged individually with their last-verified dates. Under review never means hidden; it means honestly uncertain.
Correction policy
When a published value is wrong, we correct the Claim, log the correction in the record’s visible change history, and update the publication receipt. Corrections are never silent: the old value, the new value, and the date remain inspectable.
If an error could affect a licensing or renewal decision — a wrong hour requirement, a wrong deadline — the record is additionally flagged under review while we re-verify adjacent Claims from the same source.
Corrections and source challenges are reviewed and reflected through the visible change history.
Independence & relationships
MassageData is published by SomaData Inc. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by the FSMTB, the NCBTMB, or any state regulatory board. We accept no payment from schools, insurers, or CE providers for placement or ranking, and no advertising appears on reference pages.
Reference content stands on its own. Optional commercial products do not control record inclusion, source selection, status labels, or the conclusions published in this atlas.