Ultimate Responsibility for Verification of Results

Ironically there is a greater personal responsibility for the burden of proof required from the amateur than the professional.  For the professional, the system used for the observations has been scrupulously characterised in terms of spurious responses (RFI surveys, etc) and any results will be vigorously peer-reviewed.  Amateurs can escape, if they are so inclined, with little censure applied to claims of 'successful' results.