Releases and methodology labels

Atlas shows a short evidence snapshot on Atlas Explorer and Compare before technical release identifiers. Technical identifiers sit inside Inspect provenance. Use this guide when you need to explain those labels to colleagues or the public.

Release semantics

Label	What it means
Evidence snapshot	A summary of the active governed release: geography in scope, source periods, and the methodology version behind the county review score.
Selected release	The governed county bundle you are viewing. The readable label may include when Atlas assembled the bundle; that is not a surveillance observation date.
Evidence scope	Which counties or geographies this release includes or excludes, as documented in governed metadata.
Source periods	Observation, reporting, or publication periods for each upstream source (for example, a surveillance table vintage). These describe public inputs—not when Atlas built or loaded the release.
Scoring methodology	The versioned rules that combine released inputs into the county review score. Distinct from source periods and from release assembly time.
Release generated	When Atlas finished building this governed bundle. A processing timestamp, not a case observation date.
Release loaded	When this release became available through the public API the application reads. May differ from generation time.
Methodology version (technical ID)	Stable identifier for scoring rules. Use it to confirm comparisons use the same methodology. When metadata is missing, the app shows Unavailable rather than inferring a version.
Release ID (technical ID)	Stable identifier for the county bundle. Use it for reproducible links, exports, and support requests.

Open Inspect provenance on Atlas Explorer when you need exact IDs and timestamps.

How county scoring works

The county review score is a derived follow-up-priority measure. It highlights where published Lyme surveillance, tick and pathogen evidence, and selected contextual inputs may warrant review together. It is not a diagnosis, individual exposure estimate, proof of underreporting, or forecast of future cases.

Deterministic scoring methodology applies fixed, inspectable rules to released inputs. Semantic scoring methodology follows the same transparency goals with a newer ruleset named in governed metadata. Compare counties within one active release and one methodology version.

Keep three time concepts separate:

1. Source periods — what upstream publishers reported.
2. Release generated / loaded — how and when Atlas processed and delivered the bundle.
3. Methodology version — how inputs were combined into scores.

If a value is absent or invalid, Atlas shows Unavailable. The application does not invent source retrieval dates or hide technical identifiers.

For value states, missingness, and uncertainty language, continue with Evidence, provenance, and uncertainty. Sources and canonical evidence explains how a future governed source is intended to keep this same source period, method version, and provenance when it is normalized.