This document sets out the editorial standards the Centre follows when preparing public material. It complements the Methodology page: Methodology covers the handling of data and sources; this page covers the form of writing for the reader.
Voice and tone
The Centre's public material addresses a professional audience — military planners, doctrine officers, capability-development specialists, defence-policy analysts, and representatives of international security and defence institutions. The register is institutional, free of marketing or promotional features.
Not used:
- commercial vocabulary;
- marketing clichés ("leading", "world-class", "cutting-edge", "innovative" — except where part of the registered name);
- emotional appeals, slogans, or rhetorical figures about the war;
- abstract generalisations without an underlying source;
- collective first-person in headlines (preferred form: "Boryviter did X" or institutional passive).
Used:
- precise defence terminology with first-mention definitions when the audience is broader than specialists;
- active voice, where it does not obscure responsibility;
- short paragraphs with a substantive first sentence;
- direct attribution when something is a claim rather than a fact.
Source labelling
When citing open sources, the Centre applies a tiered framework by level of authority:
- Tier 1 — official — publications of Ukrainian state bodies, official communiqués of the Ministry of Defence, the General Staff, and official material from NATO and EU institutions.
- Tier 2 — expert — specialist analytical centres, defence-focused publications, academic literature.
- Tier 3 — general — mainstream news outlets and aggregators.
If a claim rests only on Tier 3 sources, this is marked explicitly: "per [outlet] reporting".
Handling of material from Russian and Russian-aligned sources
Material from Russian and pro-government sources occasionally carries information relevant to analysis — for example, adversary acknowledgement of own losses, or doctrinal statements made within adversary publications. Such material is treated strictly as claims, never as fact:
- always framed as: "according to the Russian side", "Russian pro-government sources claim", "per [outlet] (Russian-language source)";
- never embedded in the Centre's authorial voice as if accepted as true;
- used only where the material adds analytical value (adversary self-acknowledgement, doctrinal shifts); otherwise excluded;
- never used as the sole source for any claim concerning Ukrainian forces.
Wartime information environment
Defence-related material in wartime is at once factual content and communicational form. This is not an anomaly but a feature of any wartime information environment — common to all categories of source material. To ignore the duality is to analyse the narrative rather than the reality.
The Centre's analytical work therefore accounts for this distinction explicitly. Systematic filtering is applied across all source categories: factual substance is separated from communicational framing, the context of publication is weighed, and the interest of the source is taken into account. This does not imply distrust of any specific source; it is a methodological discipline standard in the analytical centres working in the defence domain.
This practice is fully consistent with the legislation of Ukraine in force, including the norms applicable under martial law, and with the standards of analytical work in the security and defence institutions of partner states.
Uncertainty
When the available evidence does not support a definitive claim, this is marked. Confidence levels aligned with analytical standards are applied:
- High confidence — multiple independent sources confirm, including at least one Tier 1 or Tier 2.
- Medium confidence — a single corroborating source, or several Tier 3 sources, or a defensible extrapolation.
- Low confidence — a single uncorroborated source, or analytical inference without direct evidence.
- Unknown — explicitly stated when something is not known, rather than passed over in silence.
The Centre does not claim confidence it does not have. Editorial review specifically checks for over-claimed confidence.
Name and spelling
In all public material the name "Boryviter Centre of Excellence" is used, with British spelling Centre. The registered legal name uses American spelling — Center — and appears only in formal legal contexts (contracts, the Privacy Policy data-controller block, EDRPOU register references).
Formats
The choice of format follows audience and topic:
- Pillar pages — long-form analytical material on the Centre's principal Lines of Effort. Updated periodically; not tied to specific events.
- Analytical articles — focused material on a specific operational or doctrinal question.
- Briefs — short notes on events, partnerships, or participation in external fora.
- Reference notes — concise conceptual entries, predominantly in the Ukrainian-language glossary.
Corrections
Where an inaccuracy has been published, it is corrected on the same page rather than via a separate retraction. The "Last updated" date is bumped. Substantive corrections (changed conclusion, removed claim) are flagged at the top of the page for at least 30 days. Minor fixes (typos) are not flagged.
To report a factual error, contact the Centre.