Reliability 

We provide a description of the source and a subjective judgment concerning its reliability. These are each defined by two categorisations. Concerning the description of the source, they are:  

Primary: original documents produced by the party involved in the transfer (such as a government report on its arms exports); and eye witness reports. 

Secondary: information reported by a third party (such as a press report). 

Concerning the reliability of the source, this is divided into two categorisations - high and less. This is based on a subjective judgment by the person responsible for entering the data. In general it is based upon an assessment of the veracity of the information provided by the source.

Please note that an evaluation of the accuracy of the figure provided by the source is provided in a different column (accuracy). It is possible for a reliable source to provide an inaccurate figure (for example, a government repot might state that approximately USD 500 000 worth of small arms were exported during a particular year). 

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April 2004 - NISAT