Source Policy

Sources are the backbone of SKB. A claim is only as useful as the source behind it.

Accepted source types

We use eight source categories: peer-reviewed research, dermatology reference, regulatory reference, manufacturer clinical data, official product page, clinical guideline, medical reference, and other. “Other” requires a documented reason.

Evidence hierarchy

Efficacy and mechanism claims need stronger evidence, such as peer-reviewed research or clinical guidelines. Product-fact claims may use official product pages. Consumer-care guidance can draw from dermatology institutions, medical references, and other reputable patient-facing sources.

A product page can verify what a product says, costs, contains, or claims. It does not prove that the product works unless independent evidence supports that claim.

URL verification

Every cited source URL is checked at authoring time. The page must return a valid response, or be on a documented bot-blocking allowlist, and the claimed source title must match the page content closely enough to verify that the citation points to the right place.

URLs that 404, redirect to unrelated pages, or cannot be matched to the claimed title cannot be cited.

Bot-blocking allowlist

Some legitimate sites block automated probes. Sources on those domains require manual browser verification documented in the source record. Bot blocking is not a free pass; the page still has to be real and relevant.

No fabricated citations

AI authors are known to invent plausible-sounding citations. SKB rejects that pattern by infrastructure. Validators run before publication and fail bundles with unverifiable sources, broken source metadata, or dangling references.