References
What published references underpin the methodology?
The methodology rests on an established body of reference literature — textbooks, statistical manuals, and technical papers spanning the economics of commodity markets and the robust-statistics techniques used to estimate prices from trade data. This shared foundation was drawn on throughout the development of the methodology and the elaboration of its models, so that any reader can trace the underlying concepts and techniques to their primary sources.
How does Intratec keep its reference sources independent?
Every work in this list is a published, independently obtainable source — a textbook, an official statistical manual, or a peer-reviewed technical paper — rather than a proprietary or vendor-supplied dataset. Anyone can obtain the original and check it, so the foundations of the methodology can be audited without relying on Intratec's own account of them. The statistical techniques are drawn from the open literature on robust estimation, and any external index consulted while calibrating a model serves only as an internal reference point — it is never republished or presented as a source. This mirrors the data-side commitments described in What independence commitments back the analysis?: impartial, publicly grounded inputs at every layer.
When is a new source added to this reference list?
A reference is added when a change to the methodology introduces a technique, data treatment, or convention that a published work underpins — adopting a new robust-estimation method or a revised trade-statistics standard, for instance. A source is likewise removed or replaced when the technique it supported is retired. The list therefore tracks the methods actually in use rather than the wider literature on the subject. The schedule on which such changes are reviewed and released is described in How often is the methodology reviewed?.
Where are the recurring methodology terms defined?
Recurring terms used throughout the methodology — the price types, the data status labels (Final, Preliminary, and Forecast), the accuracy metrics (mean absolute percentage error, mean absolute percentage accuracy, directional accuracy, and the model performance score), and the pricing conventions (netback, netforward, and the Incoterms that fix each assessment basis) — are defined in full in the Glossary. Reading the Glossary alongside any article keeps the meaning of a term identical across every part of the methodology, so a definition never has to be repeated or paraphrased inside an individual answer.
Where can the up-to-date methodology be found?
The complete methodology is published in full on this methodology site, where it is continuously updated as models and data sources evolve. It requires no subscription and no login: every step, from raw inputs to a finished assessment, is openly available to read. Changes to the methodology and to the underlying data are documented as they are made, so the version on the site is always the current one — there is no separate edition to request or purchase.