Referencing policy

All content on Vaxfact wiki must be supported by references to reliable sources, this minimizes the chance that false information gets added to the wiki. New discoveries, whistleblowing, and any other new information must be published somewhere else where it can be verified before it can be included on this wiki

What are reliable sources?
Ideal sources for biomedical information include: review articles (especially systematic reviews) published in reputable medical journals; academic and professional books written by experts in the relevant fields and from respected publishers; and guidelines or position statements from national or international expert bodies. Primary sources should generally not be used for medical content – as such sources often include unreliable or preliminary information, for example early in vitro results which don't hold in later clinical trials.

In the biomedical literature: Articles should be based on reliable, independent, published secondary or tertiary sources. For biomedical content, primary sources should generally not be used. This is because primary biomedical literature is exploratory and often not reliable, and any given primary source may be contradicted by another.
 * A primary source in medicine is one in which the authors directly participated in the research or documented their personal experiences. They examined the patients, injected the rats, ran the experiments, or at least supervised those who did. Many, but not all, papers published in medical journals are primary sources for facts about the research and discoveries made.
 * A secondary source in medicine summarizes one or more primary or secondary sources, usually to provide an overview of current understanding of the topic, to make recommendations, or to combine results of several studies. Examples include literature reviews or systematic reviews found in medical journals, specialist academic or professional books, and medical guidelines or position statements published by major health organizations.
 * A tertiary source usually summarizes a range of secondary sources. Undergraduate or graduate level textbooks, edited scientific books, lay scientific books, and encyclopedias are examples of tertiary sources.

Biased sources
Sources that are pushing an agenda, or that have a financial conflict of interest should generally not be considered reliable, even if they meet the other criteria for reliability. Blogs and opinion pieces, even if written by doctors, scientists, or other experts, should generally not be considered reliable for scientific facts, but may contain links to reliable sources that can be used. To improve readers trust, sources that are reliable but controversial among a substantial group of people should only be used if there are no less controversial reliable sources for the info

Sources that make unsubstantiated assertions or claims based on illogical reasoning are not reliable, regardless of how reputable or authoritative they supposedly are.