Sources & Evidence Standards | PawPulse Reviews

Preferred sources

We prioritize veterinary schools, professional veterinary organizations, government and public-health agencies, peer-reviewed research, transparent veterinary hospital resources and other first-party material that directly supports the claim being made.

Commercial and local sources

Clinic pricing pages and provider information can be useful for local cost research, but they must be attributed and should not be generalized beyond what the source supports. Ratings or provider claims are not invented or copied without verification.

Secondary sources

High-quality secondary reporting may be used for context when primary data is unavailable, but important medical claims should be traced back to stronger evidence where possible.

What does not count as evidence

Unattributed AI output, fabricated citations, invented veterinarians, unsourced exact prices and promotional claims presented as medical fact are not acceptable sources for PawPulse Reviews.

Evidence confidence labels

PawPulse now separates internal editorial support from planning frameworks and externally verified claims. We do not label a claim externally verified unless an identified external source directly supports it.

Level	Label	Meaning
A	Externally verified	Directly supported by an identified external primary or reputable source.
B	Internal editorial support	Supported by an existing PawPulse editorial page, but claim-level external verification is not embedded.
C	Planning framework	A calculator, checklist or decision framework used to organize questions rather than establish a medical fact or guaranteed price.
D	Commercial/supportive recommendation	A product or commercial action kept separate from medical claims and never presented as a substitute for veterinary care.

Current Phase 6 status

The current canonical pages do not embed claim-level external citations. Phase 6 therefore assigns no Level A claims. This is deliberate. Internal guidance remains Level B and planning tools remain Level C until external sources are attached at claim level.

Phase 7 authoritative source registry

Phase 7 begins claim-level external hardening using veterinary schools, professional and specialty veterinary organizations, and peer-reviewed veterinary references. A source is attached only where it directly supports the topic or claim.