Editorial and citation policy

Every factual claim here has to trace back to a source that states it, not to a source about the general topic. That test governs most of the editorial work. Sources are ranked. Where two disagree, the higher tier decides. Where the higher tier is silent, the page records that the evidence is thin, and we do not reach down a tier to fill the gap. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses sit at the top, because they settle what individual trials cannot. Randomized trials come next, then smaller controlled studies and case series. Below the literature sits guidance from professional bodies and national health services, useful for standard of care but slower to move than the research.

• Peer-reviewed primary literature first: systematic reviews and meta-analyses, then randomized controlled trials, then smaller controlled studies and case series.
• Then guidance from professional bodies and national health services, for standard of care and safety.
• Then standard clinical and pharmacological references, for definitions, mechanisms and dosing.
• Consumer health sites, clinic marketing pages and press releases are not evidence. We read them to see what people are being told, and we do not cite them for a claim.

A citation shows a claim has a source. A grade shows how much weight that source can carry. Every treatment on this site gets one, placed next to the treatment name. Grades describe the state of the research, not the popularity of the product, and they move in either direction. Several already have. A strong grade does not guarantee a result on your scar, and a limited grade does not mean the treatment is useless. It means the evidence is not there yet, and cost and risk should be weighed accordingly.

• Strong: consistent results across multiple good quality trials, or a systematic review pointing one way.
• Moderate: the direction is clear, but the studies are smaller, fewer or messier.
• Limited: some human evidence exists, and it is not enough to rely on. A treatment with a credible mechanism but no human data yet is described in the text, not graded.
• Weak: tested and found wanting. Anecdotal, mixed or negative evidence.

Any sentence carrying a number, a timeline, a dose, a risk or a comparison has to point at a source, and the check is whether that source states it. Checking runs sentence by sentence.

A range in a review becomes a single confident figure on the page. A result measured in burn scars gets applied to acne scars. A citation is real and the claim attached to it is not, so the paper exists, the authors are right, and it does not contain the sentence. Those account for most of what gets caught, and all of them read perfectly well, so rereading a draft does not find them. Opening the source does.

A reference with no working link is treated as unverified and does not publish.

A range in the literature is published as a range. A striking figure from a single study that nothing else supports either stays out or carries that study's name.

Costs vary by country, clinic and treatment area, so the prices here are published ranges to check a quote against. Timelines have the opposite problem: scars remodel over months, and a treatment showing nothing at four weeks can show a great deal at six, so every figure states the window it was measured in.

Each page carries the date it was last checked against the literature.

There is no sponsored content and no paid placement in any ranking or table. A treatment appears in a table because the evidence puts it there. No manufacturer, clinic or supplier sees a page before it publishes, and none can buy a grade or have an unflattering one removed.

Before and after images are not used as proof, because they are easy to stage. Protocols that need clinical supervision are not written up as though they could be run at home. A claim we could not source stays out even when the treatment is popular and the search demand is high, which leaves visible gaps in the coverage.

When a page states something its source does not support, the page is corrected and its revision date updates to the day of the change. Style edits and typo fixes do not change meaning and do not move the date.

The corrections page explains how to report an error and what happens next. A report with a source attached moves fastest, and a source is not required.