Core Principles

The commitments that govern every Intratec assessment, across all four solutions.

What principles govern every Intratec assessment?

Eight principles apply across all Intratec solutions: independent sourcing, no commercial ties to market participants, impartial auditable methods, two-layer validation, continuous improvement driven by subscriber feedback, public change disclosure, automated collection at scale, and a continuously strengthened source base.

Every assessment, across all four solutions, is built under the same eight commitments:

Sourcing. Intratec is not a primary source for pricing data: the vast majority of data comes from public official sources — statistics bureaus, trade agencies, multilateral organizations, and market exchanges. Private sources and producers' data are used only with permission from the rights holders, and surveys occur only in very exceptional circumstances. The full source landscape is detailed in the From Raw Data to Assessments section.
Independence. Intratec maintains no commercial relationships with commodity market participants — the producers, traders, and other firms active in a market. This removes the incentive for any single party to influence the results, as discussed in the Independence and Limitations section.
Impartial, auditable methods. All data is processed through impartial, auditable methods, so that each published figure can be traced back to its sources and the rules that produced it. No party's commercial interest enters the calculation.
Two-layer validation. Before publication, data passes automated cross-referencing of multiple sources followed by expert human review — market analysts acting as the final quality gate. Both layers run every month before any figure is released, as detailed in the Validation & Accuracy section.
Continuous model review and improvement. Models and methods are reviewed continuously rather than on a fixed cycle, and subscriber feedback — including a formal assessment-complaint process — feeds directly into corrections and refinements.
Transparency of changes. All methodology and data changes are documented each month in the Intratec Release Notes, which are publicly available, keeping the published record traceable over time. The revision lifecycle is detailed in the Publishing and Revisions section.
Automated collection at scale. Data collection runs on automated, large-scale, resilient systems, allowing a large volume and variety of data to be gathered consistently every cycle, as described in the From Raw Data to Assessments section.
Continuous strengthening of the source base. The set of sources grows over time, official and recognized institutions are prioritized, validation procedures are continuously improved, and discontinued sources are quickly replaced.

How is data quality assured over time?

Quality is sustained through a monthly two-layer validation gate and a source base that is continuously expanded, prioritized toward official institutions, and repaired when sources are discontinued.

Two mechanisms work together. The first operates every month: all data passes a two-layer validation before release. An automated stage cross-references multiple sources and applies mathematical models to flag inconsistencies; market experts then review the outputs and serve as the final quality gate before publication.

The second operates continuously on the source base itself. The number of sources is increased over time, with priority given to official and recognized institutions; validation procedures are progressively improved; and when a source is discontinued, it is quickly replaced so that coverage and continuity are preserved. Collection itself runs on automated, large-scale, resilient systems, which keeps the gathering process consistent regardless of data volume.

How does subscriber feedback improve the methodology?

Subscribers can question any published figure through a formal assessment-complaint process, and resolved complaints — alongside broader feedback — feed the continuous cycle of methodology reviews. The full path from feedback to revision, and how each change is documented in the monthly, publicly available Release Notes, is described in the Accuracy, Feedback, and Continuous Improvement article of the Validation & Accuracy section.