Vocabulary

Adjusted time. The recorded time, put on a common scale for age, sex category and pool length. A model output that always carries an interval, a model version and a computation date.

Recorded time. The time as swum and officially recorded — a measurement, carrying no interval. Recorded and adjusted times never share a column.

95% interval. The range of true values an estimate is compatible with, at the stated confidence level, set at the same size and weight as the point estimate on every page that publishes one.

Indistinguishable. Two estimates whose 95% intervals overlap, so the ordering between them carries no statistical support at the 95% level. The table still prints one above the other because a table has rows in some order; the tie bracket marks where that order carries no claim.

Cohort. The group of swimmers a comparison is made against — specified by event, sex category as recorded, age band, period and the federations covered. No percentile, curve or effect is published without naming it.

Window. The span of time a computation draws its races from. Every published figure states its window, because a figure without one is not reproducible.

Excluded. Present in the record but not eligible for this computation, and labelled as such — distinct from absent, where the record contains nothing at all. Every exclusion is marked in the row it would have occupied.

Model version. Which version of the model produced this number. A figure without a version cannot be reproduced, so it is not published.