Claims on this site are sourced to peer-reviewed research, official clinical guidelines, or public health institutions, never to a product’s own sales page. Sources are listed at the end of each article, and where the evidence is weak, the article says so.
What counts as a source here
In rough order of weight:
- Clinical practice guidelines from bodies such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, or the American Academy of Otolaryngology. These represent expert consensus on evidence, and they outrank any individual study.
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in peer-reviewed journals.
- Individual peer-reviewed studies, cited with their size and design visible. A finding from eight participants is reported as a finding from eight participants.
- Public health institutions, including the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).
- Clinical practitioners writing in their own field, identified as such, for describing what is seen in practice rather than for establishing fact.
What does not count
- A supplement’s own website, sales page, or sponsored study.
- Press releases about research, in place of the research.
- Other content sites citing other content sites.
- Anecdote presented as evidence, including the author’s own. Personal experience appears here as illustration, clearly marked, never as proof.
Where the evidence runs out
Tinnitus research has real limits, and this site states them rather than writing around them. Where a mechanism is plausible but unproven, the article says “plausible but unproven.” Where studies conflict, the article says they conflict. Where nobody knows, the article says nobody knows.
How sources appear
Sources are listed at the end of each article, with enough detail to find the original: the institution or journal, the title, and the year. Where a study is small, preliminary, or funded by an interested party, that is noted next to it rather than buried.
If you find a source here misrepresented, that is a serious error and we want it reported: contact@tinnitusexplained.com.