Verify a Finding Before You Cite It

Verify a Finding Before You Cite It

Open the paper, read the method, size the effect and look for a review before a one-line takeaway becomes a citation in your own work.

consensus research citations critical-appraisal evidence writing

به چه درد می‌خورد

یک جمله خلاصه در فهرست نتایج، نشانی مقاله است نه یافته. مقاله را باز کن، آن جمله را در متن پیدا کن و روش را بخوان: چند نفر، چه مدت، انسان یا حیوان، تصادفی‌شده یا مشاهده‌ای، در مقایسه با چه. بعد ادعا را دقیقا به همان اندازه‌ای بنویس که شواهد اجازه می‌دهند؛ «یک کارآزمایی کوچک نشان داد» صادقانه است، «مطالعات نشان می‌دهند» نیست.

خود اسکیل

A one-line takeaway in a results list is a pointer to a paper, not a finding.
Before it enters your writing, do all of this:

1. Open the paper. Not the card, not the abstract - the paper. These searches
   work mostly from abstracts, and abstracts routinely state a conclusion that
   the results section qualifies.
2. Find the sentence the takeaway came from and read the two paragraphs around
   it. Check whether it describes this study's own result, a previous study it
   is citing, or what the authors hope future work will show.
3. Read the method line: how many participants, over how long, human or
   animal, randomised or observational, compared against what. Twelve people
   for two weeks and four thousand for four years look identical in a results
   list.
4. Check direction and size. "Statistically significant" is not "large enough
   to matter". Write down the actual effect, with its unit, or do not cite it.
5. Check who funded it and what the authors declared. Not to dismiss the
   paper, but so that you are the one who found out.
6. Check whether it stands alone. One paper is an observation. Look for a
   systematic review or meta-analysis on the same question and read what it
   concluded, even when it is duller than your paper.
7. Check it has not been retracted or corrected, and note the year. A 2009
   result in a fast-moving field needs a reason to still be quoted.

Then state the claim at the strength the evidence supports. "One small
randomised trial found X" is honest. "Studies show X" is not.

The failure this prevents: a sentence in your work with a real citation
attached that the cited paper does not support - the error a reviewer finds
in ten seconds and remembers for years.

نصبش چطور است

1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template.
2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions
   — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona.
3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.

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