Methodology

What gets included

Any primary-source PDF that a submitter can lawfully share and that fits one of the document types: study, protocol, package insert, FOIA record, COI disclosure, or other.

Review process

1. A submission is stored privately with status pending. It is not listed or linked publicly.
2. A moderator opens the PDF, checks that it is a genuine document and not spam or personal data, and corrects the metadata against the document.
3. The moderator approves or rejects it. Approval is always a manual step; nothing is approved automatically.

Metadata fields

• Placebo type – the comparator described in the document (for example inert placebo, active comparator, no treatment), copied from the document's wording.
• Funding source / manufacturer – as stated in the document's disclosures.
• Participants and follow-up – as reported by the study's authors.
• Tags – short descriptive keywords chosen by the submitter or moderator.

Relative and absolute risk

Studies often report a relative risk reduction (the proportional change between groups) and sometimes an absolute risk reduction (the difference in event rates). Both describe the same data in different ways. The Big Picture page explains the arithmetic with example numbers that are explicitly labelled as placeholders.

Limitations

The archive is not a systematic review and does not assess study quality. Metadata may contain transcription errors; the linked document is always the authoritative source.