The degree to which US suicides may be underreported or misclassified is unknown. To remedy this, a working group developed operational criteria with the purpose of improving the validity & reliability of stats by 1) promoting consistent & uniform classifications, 2) making criteria for decision making explicit, 3) increasing the amount of info used in decision making, 4) aiding certifiers in exercising prof. judgement & 5) est. common standards of practice for the determination of suicide.