I am writing a comparison article and found a useful statistic in three industry publications. Initially, it looked independently confirmed. After following the links, all three appear to rely on the same vendor press release.
The release describes a customer survey but does not provide the questionnaire, sample selection method, or full results. Its headline also makes a broader claim than the quoted survey response seems to support.
Would you cite the vendor directly with a clear qualification, cite one of the publications, or leave the statistic out? I am especially unsure how to handle press release attribution when the original source has a commercial interest but the number is still relevant to readers.
What minimum survey methodology details would you expect before using the figure, and how would you word the attribution without making repeated coverage sound like independent verification?
