White paper or not quite right paper? What exactly are you basing your evidence/decisions on?

The term white paper originated with the British government.

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. 

It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.

The initial British term concerning a type of government-issued document has proliferated, taking a somewhat new meaning in business. In business, a white paper is closer to a form of marketing presentation, a tool meant to persuade customers and partners and promote a product or viewpoint.

White papers may be considered grey literature.

White papers are considered to be a form of content marketing or inbound marketing; in other words, sponsored content available on the web with or without registration intended to raise the visibility of the sponsor in search engine results and thus build web traffic.

Wikipedia provides this valuable lesson for free, yet it is heeded by so few. 

White papers have become an authoritative-sounding marketing document. 

Specific authors, qualifications and external, qualitative references are absent. 

Instead, you get branding, logos, self-promotion, graphics and colour all aimed at converting potential customers in to paying customers or making existing clients feel like they have been handed some exclusive, informative or advantageous insights to a problem. 

Unless the paper conveys even the basics of a white paper, it should be considered a not quite right paper. 

"Sales and marketing brochure" for short. 

A growing risk to companies and consumers is when not quite right papers are based on a collection of not quite right white papers. 

This daisy chain effect builds layers of baseless information that is difficult to correct with informed, research and authoritative analysis. 

Frequency of exposure makes is feel legitimate and becomes embedded in consumers subconscious as 'fact'. 

It is important to remember the initial definition of a white paper as "presenting the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. "

Note that technical, scientific or evidence-based references are missing from the definition. 

Humanities, science and business qualifications or education are not the same nor interchangeable. 

These distinctions are also conveniently absent from sales and marketing procures or the not quite right papers. 

Moreover, job titles, company branding, club membership and prevalence in the media is not a metric for expertise. 

Here is an essential 10-step guide to the determination of a white paper or not quite right (sales/marketing) document:

1. Is a specific person identified as an author for particular elements of the material?
2. Is the author's credentials, qualifications, education and relevance to the subject matter clear and documented?
3. If there is more than one contributor? If so, are their specific contributions and works noted and clarified? 
4. Are all citations precise, documented and included in the document? 
5. Are there more than 10 external references supporting the document's argument or position? 
6. If over 3,000 words, is there no less than 25 external, authoritative and documented references?
7. Are references external sources and greater than 80% cited not prior works of the authors, company or cohort? 
8. Are any direct or indirect commercial agreements or relationships declared in the document?
9. Has all data, survey or statistical materials been included for validation and verification? 
10. Is product publicly available in an open domain for access and consideration? 

The guidance may seem onerous but the original, lofty objective a white paper was that of careful consideration of a focused topic in support of the public interest. 

Anything less is therefore not worthy of the title and is merely trading on the premise of authority and stolen legitimacy for the purpose of commercial gain. 

Consumers and advocates of such works endorse and perpetuate these notions.

Professional bodies, homogeneous cohorts and commercial actors contribute further. 

Stop calling them white papers or consuming them as if they were. 

File them as not quite right (NQR) or sales and marketing documents. 

The pulp mill that produces these NQR offerings churns a new one out on a new or related topic at rates inconsistent with a considered measure of a complicated issue or culturally and the geographically diverse population they claim to have solved all ails for on their behalf. 

Perhaps that should be the single metric for suspicion or inclusion/exclusion from the white paper archives. 

Tony Ridley

Enterprise Security Risk Management & Security Science