Editorial Standards
What we cover
phd.press covers peer-reviewed research in Biology, Neuroscience, and Medicine. We do not cover preprints, conference abstracts, press releases, or secondary reporting.
Every paper we feature has cleared peer review at its journal of record. We note when a finding is preliminary or from a single study.
How papers are selected
Papers are scored on three dimensions, each from 1-10:
| Significance | Does the finding change how we understand something important? |
| Accessibility | Can an educated non-specialist follow the methods and conclusions? |
| Breadth | Does the finding matter beyond the specific subfield? |
Papers scoring 7 or above on all three dimensions receive a full brief. Papers below that threshold are logged but not featured. Scores are generated by a language model and reviewed against the abstract.
Brief format
Every brief contains the same six fields:
| Question | The research question the study addresses. |
| Sample | Who or what was studied, and how many. |
| Method | How the study was conducted. |
| Finding | What the study found. |
| Limitation | What the study cannot tell us. |
| Next step | What would need to happen to confirm or extend this finding. |
Corrections and retractions
If a paper we featured is retracted or substantially corrected, we note it in the Retractions section on the homepage and update the original brief. We do not delete featured papers; we annotate them.
What we are not
phd.press is not a peer-reviewed journal. We are a summary and discovery service. Nothing here constitutes medical advice. Do not make clinical decisions based on what you read here.