WHAT A COA IS SUPPOSED TO DO
A COA is a document that's supposed to tie a specific batch of product to a specific set of laboratory tests run by a specific lab on a specific date.
Four facts have to hold for that document to mean what it appears to mean. A document that looks official but can't be matched to a batch, or whose lab can't be independently verified, or whose tests don't cover the right things, doesn't prove much. It can produce false confidence.
WHY DOCUMENTATION LITERACY MATTERS
In the research-use-only market, reading documentation well matters more than most buyers' prior background has prepared them for. The COA is a starting point, not the answer.
A source that explains how its COAs are produced, that ties documents to batches, that uses labs the buyer can verify independently, and that treats documentation as part of the product rather than as marketing material is what the documentation framework actually asks for.
What this means
This is the work Catalyst is built around: batch-level traceability, documentation literacy as a customer-facing system, and verification treated as part of the product.
A COA is a starting point, not the answer.