Peer Review
Definition
Assessment of a manuscript by independent researchers before a journal publishes it. It catches some errors and does not verify that the underlying data exist or are correct.
What this means for research sourcing
Understanding evidence quality helps researchers prioritize compounds. Volta's research library summarizes the literature behind stocked compounds.
Related Terms in Evidence & Research
Retraction
A journal's formal withdrawal of a published paper for error or misconduct. Retracted papers keep accruing citations for years, so a claim can stay in circulation long after its source was withdrawn.
Expression of Concern
A notice a journal attaches to a paper when it has credible doubts about its integrity but has not finished investigating. It is a warning short of retraction and is easy to miss on a citation.
ClinicalTrials.gov
The US National Library of Medicine's public registry of clinical studies. Comparing a registered protocol against the published paper is how a switched endpoint is caught.
NCT Number
The identifier every study registered on ClinicalTrials.gov carries, in the form NCT followed by eight digits. It resolves to the protocol, the enrolment status and, where posted, the results.
PubMed
The US National Library of Medicine's free index of biomedical literature, covering more than 30 million citations. A reference that resolves to a PubMed, PMC or DOI record can be checked; one that does not, cannot.
Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial
A large trial powered to detect differences in events such as myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular death rather than in a laboratory marker. It is the design regulators require before a cardiovascular benefit may be claimed.
Estimand
A precise statement of what a trial is estimating: the population, the endpoint, and how events such as discontinuation are handled. Two analyses of one dataset can differ because they answer different estimands rather than because one is wrong.
Adherence
The extent to which participants followed the assigned protocol. Low adherence pulls a result toward no difference, so it is reported alongside the outcome rather than treated as a footnote.