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FonteumPublic-records evidence

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Citation discovery pipeline.

Fonteum automatically discovers papers and datasets that cite federal healthcare records published via this platform. The pipeline polls OpenAlex — the open scholarly graph — for works that reference Fonteum source URLs, then routes candidates through a human moderation queue before surfacing them on researcher-facing pages.

How it works

  1. A nightly Inngest function queries OpenAlex for works containing Fonteum dataset URLs in their reference lists.
  2. Each candidate is written to the discovered_citations table with the reference type apex_url (direct link to Fonteum).
  3. Candidates enter the moderation queue. A reviewer approves or rejects each citation. Approved citations appear on /for/researchers and on the relevant study pages.

Reference types

apex_url
A direct hyperlink to a Fonteumpage or API endpoint found in the paper's body or references. This is the only reference type currently issued.

Moderation policy

Only citations from peer-reviewed journals, preprint servers (arXiv, medRxiv, bioRxiv), or established data repositories pass the moderation filter. The moderation team rejects self-citations, spam, and works that reference Fonteum only incidentally. Approved citations are immutable; rejected citations are soft-deleted and never resurfaced.

What’s on file, by the numbers

Platform snapshot · 2026-07-24

13.4Mproviders & companiesProviders, organizations, owners, and facilities on file
26.2Msource-linked factsSource-linked field facts in the dated platform snapshot
90sources with dataDistinct snapshot source IDs with at least one positive record count
79fresh sourcesDistinct source IDs whose latest positive-data snapshot falls within the preceding 45 days
111sources integratedActive registry rows; integration does not establish a load
13state Medicaid jurisdictionsDistinct states represented in the state-exclusions serving table

Integrated, with-data, and fresh-observation counts are separate. No platform-wide source-completeness count is published. Completeness is source-specific and must be evaluated against the named source's expected scope. State coverage is a separate jurisdiction measure.

Source authority is record-specific

Use the issuer named on the record.

Fonteum spans federal, state, and global public publishers. A source page or returned record identifies its issuer and dataset where that metadata is available. A platform registry count does not assign every page to one authority or establish loaded, fresh, or complete coverage.

Browse source records and their stated limitations →

Reproducible by design

Inspect the evidence each published figure actually supplies.

Source and date

Research pages expose the named public file and observation date where those fields are available. Source-file SHA-256 coverage is separate; facts do not currently link deterministically to signatures.

Available derivation

Studies with a retained release and committed derivation link the SQL or method used. Other studies state the evidence and reproduction limits they actually have.

Daily observations

Dated table row-count observations can detect local drift. They do not imply that an upstream publisher released or Fonteum ingested new data that day.

Named medical review

Reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD, medical reviewer. Non-practicing medical reviewer.

Read the full provenance and attestation methodology →

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