Last reviewed: June 10, 2026. Author: Alex Buckles (PAC Founder). Review status: documented editorial review (this page describes our practice).
This page documents how we use sources on Parental Alienation Center. We publish it because the quality of our citations is the most important structural difference between this site and the dozens of opinion sites in adjacent territory.
The short version: we cite primary sources, we cite them inline where the claim is made, not only in a references section, and we do not cite material that cannot be traced back to a primary source.
Why citation discipline matters here
Parental alienation is a contested field. Clinical, legal, and political opinions vary, and the disagreements often run hot. A reader trying to understand the topic can find dozens of pages confidently asserting things that no peer-reviewed paper supports, often with a partisan tilt, often with the conviction that the reader is on the right side simply by visiting the page.
This site is designed to be different. Every clinical or legal claim on every page is anchored to a source the reader can verify. The reader does not have to take our word for any factual assertion. The reader can click through, read the source, and decide for themselves whether our framing is defensible.
This is more work than the alternative. We think the work is the point.
Our source hierarchy
We use a four-tier hierarchy when evaluating any source.
Tier 1, primary sources. These include peer-reviewed research published in indexed journals, statutes in their official codifications, court opinions in their original reporters, official agency publications, and academic or clinical authors writing in their own fields with documented expertise. Examples on this site include Verrocchio and colleagues (2022) on the long-term mental-health effects of parental alienation, the Garrido and colleagues (2021) systematic review, the Foundations book by Childress (2015), relevant family-law statutes accessed through their official codifications, and published court opinions accessed through reporters such as CourtListener.
Tier 2, secondary sources. These include books and articles by named experts working from Tier 1 material, professional-organization publications such as those from the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the American Bar Association Family Law Section, well-edited reference texts, and authoritative treatises. We use Tier 2 sources to summarize and contextualize Tier 1 material.
Tier 3, expert primary teaching. These include video lectures, podcasts, and authoritative blog corpora produced by named clinicians, attorneys, and researchers. We cite Tier 3 sources when the named expert is the primary teacher of a framework or technique we reference, and when their work is supported by Tier 1 or Tier 2 sources elsewhere. Bill Eddy’s clinical teaching on the brain mechanism of parental alienation, Dorcy Pruter’s operationalization of the Childress framework, and Linda Gottlieb’s work on reunification therapy at Turning Points for Families are examples. We cite the named expert, link to the specific teaching, and add editorial framing that situates the source.
Tier 4, contextual sources. These include investigative journalism, opinion pieces, news coverage, and personal accounts. We use Tier 4 sources for context and for representing perspectives, never as the primary basis for clinical or legal claims.
What we do not cite
We do not cite anonymous blog posts, including anonymous parent-advocacy sites and venting platforms.
We do not cite social media content other than from named experts in their professional capacity, with editorial framing.
We do not cite AI-generated summaries, AI search-engine answers, or aggregator content as primary sources. We use them sometimes for navigation. We do not use them as authority.
We do not cite Wikipedia entries that lack primary-source backing. Where Wikipedia is well sourced, we cite the primary sources Wikipedia points to, not Wikipedia itself.
We do not cite training programs, coaching businesses, or commercial services as sources for clinical claims, even when those programs cite their own internal data. Where a program’s framework is taught by a named expert with Tier 1 or Tier 2 backing, we cite the named expert.
How we screen sources for conflicts of interest
Before a source appears on a page, we check three things.
First, authorship. Who wrote it, and what are they qualified to claim? Peer-reviewed authors are checked against their stated affiliation and field of practice. Tier 3 experts are named, their credentials are listed, and any commercial role (a clinic they run, a training program they sell) is disclosed inline where it could shape the reading.
Second, commercial ties to programs we describe. If a source is published by the same organization that sells the program the page describes, we treat the source as marketing, not as evidence, and we look upstream for an independent study. This rule applies to reunification programs, coaching businesses, and continuing-education vendors.
Third, paid expert-witness work. Many of the clinicians and attorneys who teach on parental alienation also testify for hire. Expert-witness work is legitimate professional practice, but it is not the same as peer-reviewed evidence. Where a cited expert routinely testifies, we say so in the editorial framing and we do not let that expert’s teaching stand alone for a Tier 1 claim.
A source that fails any of these checks does not appear on the page. If we have used a source that should have failed a check, the Corrections Log is where the fix is recorded.
How citations render on the site
Every long-form page on this site renders citations in three places.
Inline in the body. Where a specific claim is made, the source is named in the body, and a hyperlink connects to the source where one is available. The reader can verify the claim at the point the claim is made, instead of hunting at the end of the page.
In a references section at the end of the page. Every long-form page closes with a references section that consolidates the citations used on that page in a standard academic format. The references section gives professionals a clean reference list they can paste into their own notes.
In the page’s structured data. Every long-form page injects Article schema with a citation field that lists each cited source as a structured object, per the Schema.org Article specification. This makes our citations readable by search engines and AI answer engines, which contributes to AI Overview and Perplexity-style citation eligibility.
Updating citations
Sources change. Studies are superseded by larger studies. Statutes are amended. Court opinions are reversed on appeal. Each page on this site is on a refresh cadence, every 90 days for High-tier pages, every 180 days for Medium-tier, annually for Low-tier, during which the citations are checked and updated. Where a citation is superseded by stronger evidence, we update the page and log the change in our Corrections Log.
A note on legal citations
Pages in our Court section cite relevant family-law statutes and court opinions on parental alienation. These legal citations pass the same documented editorial review as everything else on the site: each citation is traced to the official codification or the published opinion, and checked again at every refresh against the page’s last-reviewed date. Once the independent expert review board is appointed, a licensed family-law attorney will review the legal citations on each legal-context page, and that attorney’s name and credentials will appear through our Expert Review Board. Each page states its review status plainly; we never claim expert review a page has not had.
This site does not provide legal advice. Court pages are general information for readers who want to understand the legal context of their situation. Readers in active legal proceedings should consult a licensed attorney in their jurisdiction for advice on their specific circumstances.
Reporting a citation error
If you find a citation error, email corrections@parentalalienationcenter.com or use the Contact form. Every correction request is reviewed by the editorial team within five business days. Confirmed corrections are logged publicly in the Corrections Log.
A final note
The citation discipline on this site is not academic perfectionism. It is a structural commitment to readers who have already been gaslit. A reader who has been told for years that the situation they are experiencing is not real, is their imagination, or is their fault deserves to land on a resource where every assertion can be checked against the sources that support it. Citation discipline is how we earn that trust.
References
- Verrocchio, M. C., Marchetti, D., Carrozzino, D., Compare, A., & Fulcheri, M. (2022). The impact of parental alienating behaviours on the mental health of adults alienated in childhood. PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9026878/
- Schema.org. Article specification, citation property. https://schema.org/Article
- American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5-TR resource page. https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm
- CourtListener. Free legal opinions and dockets. https://www.courtlistener.com/
