{"schemaVersion":1,"id":"en-institutional-sources","type":"institutional","pillar":"trust","locale":"en","translationGroupId":"institutional-sources","slugPath":"sources","title":"Our sources","shortTitle":"Sources","summary":"How Body Lab chooses, ranks and cites its sources: which kinds of publication are preferred, why no digital identifier is published without verification, and how to report an error.","level":"beginner","estimatedMinutes":6,"synonyms":["sources","references","bibliography","levels of evidence","meta-analysis","citation"],"blocks":[{"id":"b1","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"An explanation without a source is an opinion. Every content page on Body Lab displays the list of work it relies on, and that list is checked when the site is compiled: a reference cited in the text but missing from the bibliography blocks publication."}]},{"id":"b2","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"This page explains how those sources are chosen, how they are ranked and how they are written."}]},{"id":"b3","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"What is preferred","anchor":"what-is-preferred"},{"id":"b4","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"A single study, however well conducted, is almost never enough to establish a fact. Body Lab therefore favours work that brings several results together."}]},{"id":"b5","type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[[{"kind":"strong","value":"Review articles"},{"kind":"text","value":" and "},{"kind":"strong","value":"meta-analyses"},{"kind":"text","value":", which gather and compare several studies on the same question."}],[{"kind":"strong","value":"Position statements"},{"kind":"text","value":" from scientific organisations and learned societies, which reflect a professional consensus at a given date."}],[{"kind":"strong","value":"Reference textbooks"},{"kind":"text","value":" in anatomy and physiology, for stable structural descriptions."}],[{"kind":"strong","value":"Original studies"},{"kind":"text","value":", as a last resort, when a topic is too recent or too specific to have been synthesised."}]]},{"id":"b6","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"An original study is never presented on its own as general proof. When one is cited, the page states who it was carried out on, for how long and under what conditions."}]},{"id":"b7","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"The hierarchy of levels of evidence","anchor":"the-hierarchy-of-levels-of-evidence"},{"id":"b8","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Sources do not all carry the same weight, and the weight also depends on the question asked. An anatomical description and a claim about the effect of training are not demonstrated in the same way."}]},{"id":"b9","type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[[{"kind":"text","value":"For an "},{"kind":"strong","value":"anatomical structure"},{"kind":"text","value":": reference textbooks and functional anatomy work take precedence. What varies from person to person is flagged as such."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"For a "},{"kind":"strong","value":"physiological mechanism"},{"kind":"text","value":": review articles take precedence, supported by the experimental work that established the mechanism."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"For an "},{"kind":"strong","value":"effect of training or nutrition"},{"kind":"text","value":": meta-analyses and controlled trials take precedence. Uncontrolled observations and results from animal models are mentioned as such, never transposed directly to humans."}]]},{"id":"b10","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"The level of evidence behind a claim is then translated into one of the four levels of certainty displayed on the page — established, probable, uncertain or teaching simplification. How those levels work is set out in the "},{"kind":"link","value":"methodology","href":"/en/methodology","external":false},{"kind":"text","value":"."}]},{"id":"b11","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"How a reference is written","anchor":"how-a-reference-is-written"},{"id":"b12","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"Every reference carries at least the author, the year, the exact title and the publication source. Those four elements are enough to find a piece of work in any bibliographic database."}]},{"id":"b13","type":"callout","tone":"note","title":"Why no digital identifier is displayed","content":[[{"kind":"text","value":"A digital publication identifier — a DOI — or a web address gives the appearance of verifiability, but a wrong identifier leads to another document, or to nothing at all. A false link is more misleading than no link at all."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"Body Lab therefore publishes no identifier and no address until it has been checked one by one. The field exists in the document format and stays empty by default. The author, year, title and source citation, on the other hand, is always enough to find the source."}]]},{"id":"b14","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"That rule applies to figures too. No numerical value is published unless it is supported by a reference declared on the same page."}]},{"id":"b15","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"What you will not find in our sources","anchor":"what-you-will-not-find-in-our-sources"},{"id":"b16","type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[[{"kind":"text","value":"No reference reconstructed from memory or generated automatically without verification."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"No citation of an article based on its abstract alone when the claim concerns a methodological detail."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"No commercial, advertising or promotional source presented as evidence."}],[{"kind":"text","value":"No extrapolation from a result obtained in a very particular population to the general population."}]]},{"id":"b17","type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Reporting an error","anchor":"reporting-an-error"},{"id":"b18","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"An error can survive: a source misread, a simplification that has become misleading, a result made obsolete by a recent publication. Reports are useful and are acted on."}]},{"id":"b19","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"A report always follows the same path. The page concerned moves to the \"due for review\" state. The point raised is checked against the original source. If the error is confirmed, the page is corrected, its last review date is updated and the version number of the document is incremented. If the point turns out to be a scientific disagreement rather than an error, the page is adjusted to reflect that disagreement rather than settling it."}]},{"id":"b20","type":"paragraph","content":[{"kind":"text","value":"A useful report gives the address of the page, the exact passage and, where possible, the source that contradicts the claim."}]},{"id":"b21","type":"callout","tone":"note","title":"Active reporting channel","content":[[{"kind":"text","value":"Editorial errors can be reported to "},{"kind":"link","value":"contact@shapier.com","href":"mailto:contact@shapier.com","external":true},{"kind":"text","value":". The message should ideally include the page address, the passage concerned and the source supporting the report. This address is also published in the legal notice."}]]},{"id":"b22","type":"shapierAction","actionId":"institutional-sources","label":"See the sources Shapier relies on","description":"Looking up the sources used by Shapier happens on Shapier; Body Lab only explains here how its own references are chosen, ranked and written.","webTarget":"https://shapier.app/en/equipe/sources","appTarget":"shapier://equipe/sources"},{"id":"b23","type":"relatedContent","title":"Read next","targetIds":["en-institutional-methodology","en-institutional-editorial-team","en-institutional-about","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":"Sources and levels of evidence — Body Lab","description":"How Body Lab selects and cites its scientific sources, ranks levels of evidence and handles the errors reported by its readers.","canonicalPath":"/en/sources","image":"/og/en/institutional-sources.png"},"app":{"offlineEligible":true},"version":1}