1. Contributions are typed and attributed
Every action on a piece of content is recorded as a typed contribution linked to a person and an article: author, reviewer, editor, fact checker, source provider, correction or citation. Each one names who did the work, on which article, for which topic, and when.
2. Contributions are accepted or declined
Publishers and editors decide whether a contribution is accepted. Accepted contributions are what build reputation. Declined ones remain part of the public record but carry no score, so the history is honest in both directions.
3. Reputation is computed from accepted work
From a contributor's accepted contributions, CitePep computes three things:
- Contribution score — a weighted total of accepted contributions, with authoring and reviewing carrying the most weight.
- Trust score — an acceptance-rate measure tempered by track record, so a long, consistent history counts for more than a single accepted item.
- Topic authority — per-topic scores that show exactly where a contributor's expertise lies.
4. Reputation becomes a portable profile
The result is a public profile that travels with the contributor across every publisher they work with — an answer to "who is this person, and what have they contributed before?" that does not depend on any single platform.