How research actually works
How research actually works: 8 articles from What Are Peptides. Plain-English answers about peptides.
How to Read a Scientific Paper: A Beginner's Walk-Through
You have clicked through to the actual study and it looks like a wall of jargon. Here is what each part of a paper is for, a sensible order to read it in, and where the species, the numbers and the funding hide.
What Is Anecdotal Evidence? Why 'It Worked for Me' Is Not Proof
A personal story can be perfectly true and still tell you almost nothing about whether a thing works. Here is what makes evidence 'anecdotal', what is missing from a story, why stories feel so convincing, and what they are genuinely good for.
What Is the Hierarchy of Evidence? The Pyramid, Explained Simply
Not every study weighs the same, and the hierarchy of evidence is the written-down ranking of why. Here is the whole ladder, from cells in a dish to reviews of many trials, what its critics get right, and where most research-peptide evidence honestly sits.
What Does "Statistically Significant" Mean?
It does not mean big. It does not mean important. It does not mean proven. It means one narrow, technical thing — and the number people actually need is usually printed right beside it.
What Is a Control Group?
Evidence is not a measurement. It is a comparison — and the comparison is the half that claims most often leave out, usually without anyone noticing that it is missing.
What Is a Placebo?
A dummy treatment sounds like a trick played on the patient. It is really a measuring instrument — and what it measures turns out to be real, but far narrower than its reputation suggests.
What Is a Systematic Review?
One study is a single data point. A systematic review is the attempt to find every study ever done on a question — including the ones nobody bothered to publish — and see what they say together.
What Is Peer Review?
Between a researcher finishing a paper and you being able to read it, other scientists are asked to look it over — unpaid, usually anonymously, and with limits that almost nobody explains.