How sources are cited
Every factual claim on this site carries a source identifier in square brackets. The identifier is a stable key, not a ranking: S-URC27-RULES means the 2027 rulebook in every chapter, in every table and in every year. The bibliography holds one row per identifier, and the primary documents page holds the archived copies of the documents that matter most.
The identifier
An identifier has three parts: the prefix S-, a family token, and a short name. The family token names the publisher or the document series, and the short name names the document. S-URC27-RULES is the 2027 URC rulebook; S-URC26-SCORES is the 2026 official score sheet; S-MST-2026-SAR is the Missouri S&T review film for 2026. The identifier never changes, so a citation written in one chapter still resolves in another.
The identifier is not a quality grade or a ranking. It is a pointer. Evidence behind a claim is judged by what the document is, not by the form of its identifier.
How a citation appears
A citation sits at the end of the sentence it supports, inside square brackets. A clause or a Q&A ruling can be named inside the same bracket, separated by a space.
| Form | What it points to | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| Identifier only | the whole document | The 2027 rover mass limit is 50 kg per deployed configuration S-URC27-RULES. |
| Identifier and clause | one rule clause | The rover must fit inside a 1.2 m cube on every axis S-URC27-RULES §2.a.ii. |
| Identifier and Q&A ruling | one published answer | The course may run up to 1 km from the command station S-URC27-QA RQ13. |
| Requirement identifier | one row of the requirements table | REQ-MOB-004 links to the requirement and its trace. |
| Problem identifier | one entry in the problem register | W1-19 links to the problem and its acceptance test. |
| Trade identifier | one coupling study | T-07 links to the trade that resolves it. |
Several identifiers can support one sentence. They are separated by semicolons inside one pair of brackets, and each becomes its own link. Rule clauses open the rules page at the clause anchor, and Q&A rulings open the Q&A page at the nearest question anchor.
What the prefixes mean
The family token says where a document comes from. It is the fastest way to judge what a citation rests on.
| Prefix | Family | Examples |
|---|---|---|
S-URC##-* |
Official URC documents for one season | S-URC27-RULES, S-URC26-SCORES |
S-URC-* |
Cross-year official pages and compiled results | S-URC-LOGISTICS, S-URC-RESULTS |
S-<TEAM>-* |
Material published by one team | S-MST-2026-SAR, S-MONASH-GH-NOVA |
S-CENSUS |
The 68-team census and its tiering rule | S-CENSUS |
S-<VENDOR>-* |
Product pages and datasheets | S-ACTUONIX-L16, S-ADAFRUIT-AS7341 |
A team prefix names the university or the team, not the rover: S-WVU-SAR2026 is West Virginia University material for 2026, whichever rover it describes. A vendor prefix is used only where the vendor’s own datasheet or product page is the evidence for a specification.
How the evidence was chosen
The order of preference is fixed. An official URC document comes first, then the team’s own material, then news coverage about the team or the event, then vendor documentation. A claim that rests on a video or a photograph says so in the text, and the page states what the image can and cannot settle.
A number is taken from the file that derives it, not from a summary that quotes it. The mass and power figures, for example, come from the budget model that computes them, and a chapter that quotes a figure links back to that owner. The same rule applies to scores, interface counts and failure rates.
Every claim carries its year. A document that changed between seasons is identified by the season it belongs to, so a 2026 ruling is never used as a 2027 requirement. Where the rules and a Q&A ruling disagree, the page says which was used.
Every citation points to a document that can be identified. Of the 1,276 entries, 55 record no public address and are identified by publisher, title and date so the document can be found in a library or a team archive. Nine entries carry an archived copy on this site, and the row links to it.
The most-cited sources
Ten documents carry most of the factual weight. The count is the number of documents that cite the identifier, as tabulated in the source index.
| Source ID | Title | Cited in |
|---|---|---|
| S-URC26-SCORES | URC 2026 official scores | 53 documents |
| S-URC27-RULES | URC 2027 requirements and guidelines | 49 documents |
| S-URC25-SCORES | URC 2025 official scores | 42 documents |
| S-URC22-SCORES | URC 2022 official scores | 42 documents |
| S-URC-RESULTS | Official scores 2022–2026, compiled | 36 documents |
| S-URC23-SCORES | URC 2023 official scores | 35 documents |
| S-URC24-SCORES | URC 2024 official scores | 35 documents |
| S-URC27-QA | URC 2027 questions and answers | 29 documents |
| S-URC-HISTRESULTS | Archived results 2013–2019 | 26 documents |
| S-URC24-TEAMS | URC 2024 team list | 21 documents |
Where to check a citation
- The bibliography lists all 1,276 entries with identifier, title, author, date, group and original link.
- The primary documents page holds the rulebooks, official score sheets, Q&A snapshots and saved pages as archived files.
- The source index shows how the registry is distributed and which documents are cited most.
- The evidence page explains how a claim is worded when it rests on a primary document, a secondhand account, an inference or no public figure.
- The results explorer opens the score data behind every result statistic.