{"schemaVersion":1,"id":"en-institutional-methodology","type":"institutional","pillar":"trust","locale":"en","translationGroupId":"institutional-methodology","slugPath":"methodology","title":"Editorial methodology","shortTitle":"Methodology","summary":"How a Body Lab page is written, checked, translated and reviewed: the stages of the editorial chain, the information every document must carry, the levels of certainty, the style rules and the health policy.","level":"beginner","estimatedMinutes":8,"synonyms":["methodology","editorial chain","review","revision","levels of evidence","health policy"],"blocks":[{"id":"b1","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Body Lab explains how the human body works. That subject has to be verifiable: a page must say where its claims come from, how solid each claim is, and what it does not cover."}]},{"id":"b2","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"This page describes the method applied to all content, without exception. It is public because it is part of what you should be able to check."}]},{"id":"b3","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The editorial chain","anchor":"the-editorial-chain"},{"id":"b4","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Every document goes through the same sequence of states. A document only moves to the next stage once the previous one is finished, and it can go back at any point."}]},{"id":"b5","type":"timeline","title":"The seven states of a document","steps":[{"id":"e1","label":"Draft","timing":"Stage 1","description":"The topic is framed, the outline is written and the sources are gathered before any writing begins. A draft is never publicly visible."},{"id":"e2","label":"Editorial review","timing":"Stage 2","description":"A review of structure, vocabulary and clarity. A check that every claim is tied to a declared source and that no promise has been made."},{"id":"e3","label":"Translation","timing":"Stage 3","description":"Production of the version in the other language, with the same translation group identifier and the same terminology."},{"id":"e4","label":"Automated validation","timing":"Stage 4","description":"Blocking checks run locally at compile time: document schema, presence of cited sources, completeness of the translation pair, absence of language mixing, uniqueness of URLs and existence of linked content."},{"id":"e5","label":"Published","timing":"Stage 5","description":"The page is reachable, with its publication date, its last review date and its next review date."},{"id":"e6","label":"Due for review","timing":"Stage 6","description":"A state triggered by the review deadline, a reported correction or a publication that changes the state of knowledge."},{"id":"e7","label":"Archived","timing":"Stage 7","description":"The document is no longer maintained. It leaves the published corpus rather than staying online with outdated information."}]},{"id":"b6","type":"heading","level":3,"text":"Current solo regime","anchor":"current-solo-regime"},{"id":"b7","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"External scientific review is suspended. The publisher validates schemas, cited sources, evidence levels, limitations, translations and review dates locally. Body Lab therefore makes no external scientific-validation claim in the interface or public metadata."}]},{"id":"b8","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"What every document must contain","anchor":"what-every-document-must-contain"},{"id":"b9","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"A document cannot be published if any of these elements is missing. Most of them are checked automatically at compile time."}]},{"id":"b10","type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[[{"kind":"text","value":"The author."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The reviewer, as soon as the content deals with health or physiology."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The publication date."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The last review date."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The next review date."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The references used."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The level of certainty of the main claims."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The limits of the content and of the models used."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The statement that the content is educational and not medical."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The version number of the document."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"The source language and the linked translation."}]]},{"id":"b11","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The levels of certainty","anchor":"the-levels-of-certainty"},{"id":"b12","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Not every claim is equally solid. Rather than presenting them all on the same footing, Body Lab labels them. Four categories are used, displayed directly in the body of the pages."}]},{"id":"b13","type":"comparison","title":"The four levels of certainty","columns":["Level","What it means","What it does not allow"],"rows":[{"label":"Established","cells":["A converging result, reproduced by independent work and not disputed in principle.","Concluding that it applies identically to every individual."]},{"label":"Probable","cells":["A coherent body of evidence, whose size or conditions remain debated.","Presenting it as a certainty or drawing a firm instruction from it."]},{"label":"Uncertain","cells":["A plausible hypothesis, with limited or conflicting data, or data from poorly comparable settings.","Citing it without mentioning the disagreement."]},{"label":"Simplification","cells":["A deliberately simplified representation used to make a mechanism understandable.","Taking it for a complete description of the phenomenon."]}]},{"id":"b14","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"A figure is never published on its own. It always comes with the population studied, the duration and the conditions. An observed association is never presented as a cause-and-effect relationship, and a single study is never turned into a general rule."}]},{"id":"b15","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The style rules","anchor":"the-style-rules"},{"id":"b16","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"These rules serve understanding, not style for its own sake."}]},{"id":"b17","type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[[{"kind":"text","value":"Everyday vocabulary comes before technical vocabulary, which is then named."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"A technical term is defined the first time it appears, on every page where it is used."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"Sentences are direct, headings descriptive rather than sensational."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"No absolute promise, no performance superlative, no numerical goal presented as achievable."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"Association and causation are distinguished explicitly."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"A published page never mixes French and English."}]]},{"id":"b18","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The health policy","anchor":"the-health-policy"},{"id":"b19","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Body Lab is an educational product. It is not a medical service, not a diagnostic tool and not a substitute for a consultation."}]},{"id":"b20","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"No page makes a diagnosis, gives a dosage, analyses an individual situation or encourages anyone to ignore pain. A page may indicate that professional advice is appropriate in certain circumstances, but it never passes judgement on your case."}]},{"id":"b21","type":"callout","tone":"caution","title":"What this method does not guarantee","content":[[{"kind":"text","value":"A rigorous editorial chain reduces the risk of error, it does not remove it. Knowledge evolves, a source can be misread, a simplification can mislead."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"That is why every page displays its review date, its limits and its sources: so that you can judge how fresh it is and trace what it claims back to its origin."}]]},{"id":"b22","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The translation policy","anchor":"the-translation-policy"},{"id":"b23","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"The French and English infrastructure has existed since day one, and production is French first. English is a translation, not an independent rewrite: the two versions of a page share a translation group identifier and follow the same terminology."}]},{"id":"b24","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Translations are produced by an artificial intelligence agent, then put through the same blocking automated checks as the French pages. Three checks decide whether a page is published: the completeness of the translation group, terminological consistency and the absence of language mixing on a single page. No English page is indexed until its translation is complete."}]},{"id":"b25","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"How sources are chosen and cited is covered on a separate page: "},{"kind":"link","value":"our sources","href":"/en/sources","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":"."}]},{"id":"b26","type":"shapierAction","actionId":"equipe-sources","label":"See how Shapier chooses and cites its sources","description":"Shapier's dedicated page lists the references it uses and explains how they are chosen and cited.","webTarget":"https://shapier.app/en/equipe/sources","appTarget":"shapier://equipe/sources"},{"id":"b27","type":"relatedContent","title":"Read next","targetIds":["en-institutional-sources","en-institutional-editorial-team","en-institutional-about","en-institutional-privacy","en-hub-corps"]}],"relations":[],"authors":["equipe-editoriale-shapier"],"reviewers":["Thanh Chau"],"references":[],"review":{"publishedAt":"2026-08-02","reviewedAt":"2026-08-02","reviewDueAt":"2027-08-02"},"limitations":[],"seo":{"title":"The editorial methodology of Body Lab","description":"The editorial chain, mandatory information, levels of certainty, style rules and health policy applied to every page published on Body Lab.","canonicalPath":"/en/methodology","image":"/og/en/institutional-methodology.png"},"app":{"offlineEligible":true},"version":1}