From the webpage:
An exhaustive reference to problems seen in real-world data along with suggestions on how to resolve them.
As a reporter your world is full of data. And those data are full of problems. This guide presents thorough descriptions and possible solutions to many of the kinds of problems that you will encounter when working with data.
Most of these problems can be solved. Some of them can’t be solved and that means you should not use the data. Others can’t be solved, but with precautions you can continue using the data. In order to allow for these ambiguities, this guide is organized by who is best equipped to solve the problem: you, your source, an expert, etc. In the description of each problem you may also find suggestions for what to do if that person can’t help you.
You can not possibly review every dataset you encounter with for all of these problems. If you try to do that you will never get anything published. However, by familiarizing yourself with the kinds of issues you are likely to encounter you will have a better chance of identifying an issue before it causes you to make a mistake.
If you have questions about this guide please email Chris. Good luck!
I hesitate at the word exhaustive for all but the most trivial of collections.
Saying “this is a guide to the most common bad data problems encountered by journalists” comes closer to the mark.
It makes a great checklist to develop your own habit of routine data checks that you apply to all data, even data from trusted sources. (Perhaps even more so from trusted sources.)
Enjoy!