How we decide what to publish

Our purpose

Our guides and ingredient pages are education, not advice to an individual and not marketing. Every guide should leave a reader better able to understand their skin, choose safe, gentle approaches, avoid harm, and recognise when professional care is needed.

Where our information comes from

We work from the strongest sources available, in roughly this order of preference:

1. Clinical guidelines from professional bodies such as the American Academy of Dermatology, the NHS and national dermatology societies.
2. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, including Cochrane reviews.
3. Randomised controlled trials in people.
4. Other human studies (cohort, split-face and open-label studies), clearly described as such.
5. Laboratory and animal studies, used only to explain how something might work and always labelled "lab-only".

Every guide lists its sources with links. We cite the original research or guideline, not a blog that describes it, and we do not cite sources we have not read.

How we grade evidence

Strong

Several good-quality human trials, or a major clinical guideline, agree that it works for this purpose.

Moderate

A few decent human trials point the same way, but they are small, short, or have not been repeated widely.

Limited

Small, short, uncontrolled or conflicting human studies. Promising at most; unproven.

Lab-only

Tested on cells, bacteria or animals, not properly in people. Lab results often fail to translate to real skin.

A low grade does not mean an approach is useless, and a high grade does not mean it will work for you. The grade tells you how much confidence the research justifies.

What we will not say

• No cures, guarantees, "miracle", "detox" or fixed timelines such as "clear skin in seven days".
• No before-and-after imagery, no shaming language about appearance, and no fear-based pressure.
• No claim that "natural" means safe. We state dilution, patch testing, sun sensitivity and who should avoid each ingredient.
• No encouragement to stop or replace a prescribed treatment.

Brands and conflicts of interest

Our guides describe ingredients by concentration and form, never by brand, and never link to retailers. Writers and reviewers must declare any financial relationship with a skin care, pharmaceutical or supplement company, and anyone with such a relationship does not work on content where it is relevant.

Writing, review and tools

Guides are drafted by our volunteers, then fact-checked line by line against the listed sources before publication. We are recruiting volunteer licensed clinicians to review clinical content; where a reviewer has checked a guide, their name and credentials appear on it. We use software, including writing and research assistants, to help draft, structure and check text; every published sentence is read, verified against its source and approved by a person, who is responsible for it.

Keeping content current

Each guide shows its last updated date. We re-check guides at least every twelve months, and sooner when a guideline changes, a safety warning is issued or a reader reports a problem. Significant changes are noted on the page.

Corrections

If you believe something we have published is wrong, email admin@thepathwaytoprogress.com with Correction in the subject line. We check every report against the sources, fix genuine errors promptly, and record significant corrections at the bottom of the affected page.

Reader data

We collect only what the free tips service needs, we never sell it or share it for anyone else's marketing, and we never use what someone tells us about their skin for anything other than choosing which messages to send. Details are in the privacy policy.