SUBTEXT STUDIO ATTRIBUTION STANDARD

Version 1.0 · August 2026 · CC BY 4.0
Canonical page: https://subtext-studio.com/ai-collaboration
Descended from the Authorship Ledger published as Appendix E of *The Alignment
Paradox* (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21654723), whose portability clause
this standard executes.

The standard in one paragraph

The Subtext Studio Attribution Standard is a versioned, openly licensed method
for recording where AI contributed to a specific piece of work, to what
extent, which system was used, and which parts remained human-only. Each
disclosure travels with the work as a Contribution Ledger.

The line

The line is between collaboration and production. Two terms, used precisely:

- AI-supported / AI-facilitated / AI-informed — a system contributed to a
  phase of the work. The output was reasoned with, argued against, rewritten;
  what reaches the page was written by a person. Phase and extent are recorded
  in the ledger attached to the work.
- AI-generated — a system produced material that reaches the deliverable
  substantially as produced. Not released under the adopter's own authorship;
  if retained in any capacity it is labelled at the point of use and named in
  the ledger.

The two are not interchangeable; the softer term never describes the harder
case.

Ledger classes

Three depths; each holds the one beneath it.

- CL-1 · Label — a short block on the finished work: phases involved,
  extent, exclusions, systems used. The default for most deliverables.
- CL-2 · Map — contribution recorded section by section, without voice
  attribution. For substantial co-produced work where a single label would
  flatten real variation.
- CL-3 · Authorship Ledger — the full instrument: voice categories and
  markers, role rotation, authorship distribution, attribution methodology
  and audit hooks. For genuine co-authorship. First published as Appendix E
  of The Alignment Paradox.

Extent grades

Ordered by how far a contribution got toward the finished thing:

- Consulted — asked, and the answer stayed outside. It shifted the
  thinking; none of it travelled into the work.
- Assisted — the output informed the work and was rewritten out of it.
  Nothing produced survives into the deliverable.
- Co-produced — produced material is in the deliverable, marked where it
  sits.

CL-1 template

    Contribution Ledger · CL-1 · Subtext Studio Attribution Standard v1.0

    Work          [title, version, date]
    Human only    [what the help never came near]
    AI-assisted   [phase] · [extent]
                  [phase] · [extent]
    Systems       [model and version] · [period]
    Ledger class  CL-1. Fuller record available on request.
    Disputes      [contact]

A ledger with nothing in the AI-assisted rows still gets published: a
deliverable no system touched is a fact worth recording in the same place and
format as one that had help.

Scope

- Published work under the adopter's own name — always, and public.
- Client work — always produced; published at the client's discretion.
- Internal and ephemeral material — no ledger. Nothing that never leaves
  the room.

Placement

- Documents: end matter, ahead of references.
- Web pages: footer of the page the ledger describes.
- Repositories: LEDGER.md at the root.
- Slides and talks: final slide; in the speaker notes too, if the deck
  travels.

Versioning rules

Every ledger names the version of the standard it was written against.
Changes to the standard are versioned and dated on the canonical page;
earlier ledgers are never rewritten to match a later version. Every row
should survive being read alone.

Licence

Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Take it, change it, cite
it: Subtext Studio Attribution Standard v1.0, August 2026,
https://subtext-studio.com/ai-collaboration