diff --git a/internal/formats/formats.go b/internal/formats/formats.go
index 6fe7c47bf4f..5c82bd6533a 100644
--- a/internal/formats/formats.go
+++ b/internal/formats/formats.go
@@ -16,9 +16,10 @@ func All() []format.Format {
 
 func Identify(by []byte) (*format.Format, error) {
 	for _, f := range All() {
-		if f.Detect(bytes.NewReader(by)) {
-			return &f, nil
+		if err := f.Validate(bytes.NewReader(by)); err != nil {
+			continue
 		}
+		return &f, nil
 	}
 	return nil, nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/formats/formats_test.go b/internal/formats/formats_test.go
index 42c6f45b51d..3df97558c5f 100644
--- a/internal/formats/formats_test.go
+++ b/internal/formats/formats_test.go
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import (
 )
 
 func TestIdentify(t *testing.T) {
-
 	tests := []struct {
 		fixture  string
 		expected format.Option
diff --git a/internal/formats/syftjson/model/source.go b/internal/formats/syftjson/model/source.go
index 182be233d72..5f7ef47b5e7 100644
--- a/internal/formats/syftjson/model/source.go
+++ b/internal/formats/syftjson/model/source.go
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ func (s *Source) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error {
 			return err
 		}
 		s.Target = payload
+
 	default:
 		return fmt.Errorf("unsupported package metadata type: %+v", s.Type)
 	}
diff --git a/internal/formats/syftjson/validator.go b/internal/formats/syftjson/validator.go
index 1adcb90d461..d359b60d940 100644
--- a/internal/formats/syftjson/validator.go
+++ b/internal/formats/syftjson/validator.go
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ func validator(reader io.Reader) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unable to decode: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	// note: we accept al schema versions
+	// note: we accept all schema versions
 	// TODO: add per-schema version parsing
 	if strings.Contains(doc.Schema.URL, "anchore/syft") {
 		return nil
diff --git a/syft/format/decoder.go b/syft/format/decoder.go
index 3a00862dd3a..a48c3c98bff 100644
--- a/syft/format/decoder.go
+++ b/syft/format/decoder.go
@@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ import (
 	"github.com/anchore/syft/syft/source"
 )
 
+// Decoder is a function that can convert an SBOM document of a specific format from a reader into Syft native objects.
 type Decoder func(reader io.Reader) (*pkg.Catalog, *source.Metadata, *distro.Distro, source.Scope, error)
diff --git a/syft/format/encoder.go b/syft/format/encoder.go
index 03c72231d8f..9f253c342d4 100644
--- a/syft/format/encoder.go
+++ b/syft/format/encoder.go
@@ -8,4 +8,5 @@ import (
 	"github.com/anchore/syft/syft/source"
 )
 
+// Encoder is a function that can transform Syft native objects into an SBOM document of a specific format written to the given writer.
 type Encoder func(io.Writer, *pkg.Catalog, *source.Metadata, *distro.Distro, source.Scope) error
diff --git a/syft/format/format.go b/syft/format/format.go
index 862012be4d1..ad78fb0aa4a 100644
--- a/syft/format/format.go
+++ b/syft/format/format.go
@@ -11,8 +11,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 var (
-	ErrEncodingNotSupported = errors.New("encoding not supported")
-	ErrDecodingNotSupported = errors.New("decoding not supported")
+	ErrEncodingNotSupported   = errors.New("encoding not supported")
+	ErrDecodingNotSupported   = errors.New("decoding not supported")
+	ErrValidationNotSupported = errors.New("validation not supported")
 )
 
 type Format struct {
@@ -45,15 +46,12 @@ func (f Format) Decode(reader io.Reader) (*pkg.Catalog, *source.Metadata, *distr
 	return f.decoder(reader)
 }
 
-func (f Format) Detect(reader io.Reader) bool {
+func (f Format) Validate(reader io.Reader) error {
 	if f.validator == nil {
-		return false
+		return ErrValidationNotSupported
 	}
 
-	if err := f.validator(reader); err != nil {
-		return false
-	}
-	return true
+	return f.validator(reader)
 }
 
 func (f Format) Presenter(catalog *pkg.Catalog, metadata *source.Metadata, d *distro.Distro, scope source.Scope) *Presenter {
diff --git a/syft/format/validator.go b/syft/format/validator.go
index 59269e27125..6559186b091 100644
--- a/syft/format/validator.go
+++ b/syft/format/validator.go
@@ -2,4 +2,11 @@ package format
 
 import "io"
 
+// Validator reads the SBOM from the given reader and assesses whether the document conforms to the specific SBOM format.
+// The validator should positively confirm if the SBOM is not only the format but also has the minimal set of values
+// that the format requires. For example, all syftjson formatted documents have a schema section which should have
+// "anchore/syft" within the version --if this isn't found then the validator should raise an error. These active
+// assertions protect against "simple" format decoding validations that may lead to false positives (e.g. I decoded
+// json successfully therefore this must be the target format, however, all values are their default zero-value and
+// really represent a different format that also uses json)
 type Validator func(reader io.Reader) error