Sources and Evidence Policy
How sources are selected, evaluated and connected to claims across Atlas medical and biomedical educational content.
Preferred evidence
Atlas prioritizes sources that are authoritative, directly relevant and appropriate to the claim. Depending on the topic, these can include national and international clinical guidelines, government and public-health agencies, professional medical societies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, peer-reviewed journals and official regulatory information.
Primary sources
When reporting a specific study, intervention or quantitative result, editors should prefer the original publication when practical rather than relying solely on a secondary article that summarizes it.
Recency and context
Newer is not automatically better, and older evidence is not automatically obsolete. Editors consider whether later guidelines, safety communications, approvals, withdrawals or higher-quality research materially change the interpretation.
Source relevance
A citation should actually support the statement it accompanies. Sources should not be added only to increase citation counts. Commercial pages, anonymous claims and unsupported promotional materials should not be treated as equivalent to independent medical evidence.
Reader access
Where appropriate, Atlas may link readers to DOI records, PubMed, government agencies, professional guidance or other original sources so readers can inspect the evidence themselves.
Related Atlas standards