Editorial Standards

Sourcing

We report from primary sources wherever one exists: the paper itself, the regulator's own page, the company filing or release, the court record. A blog post that repeats a number is not a source for that number. Every article that relies on a study, report or filing links to it in a Sources section at the end.

If we cannot trace a claim to a source we can read, we leave it out or say plainly that it is an estimate and whose estimate it is.

Research coverage

When we summarize a study we say who conducted it, how large the sample was, what it measured and what the authors list as its limits. Where we draw a business conclusion the authors did not, we label it as our analysis. If we could read only the abstract, we say so.

Not medical advice

We cover the business of aesthetics. We do not give treatment, dosing or clinical guidance, and our writers are journalists, not clinicians. Clinical decisions belong to licensed professionals acting under their own state's rules.

Quotes and numbers

We do not invent quotes, and we do not attribute statements to unnamed experts. Quotations come from published statements, filings or interviews we conducted. Figures are checked against the source, and any number we calculate ourselves is recalculated before publication.

Fact-checking

Every article is checked before it is scheduled. The check covers names and titles, dates, figures, citations, the current status of any rule or law we describe, and whether each source says what we say it says. An article that fails is reworked or dropped.

Images

News photographs show the real product, place or document. Illustrations and charts may be generated and are used for concepts, not as evidence. We do not publish generated images of people, invented product photographs or fabricated before-and-after pictures.

Advertising and sponsored content

Advertisers do not see, approve or influence editorial coverage. Display advertising is labelled as sponsored. Content paid for by a sponsor is marked as such at the top of the piece. Coverage of a company is never a condition of, or a reward for, advertising.

Corrections

When we get something wrong we fix it and say that we did. See our corrections policy, or write to [email protected].