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How we check
The rules and sources behind each result: how we grade evidence, how pages get written, what we refuse to do, and who pays us. Published so you can hold us to it.
What this page is not: it explains our method; it does not itself grade an ingredient or check a product. For results, go to Explore peptides or Check a product.
How strong is the evidence? (evidence grades)
What this term means: an evidence grade says what kinds of studies support a claim, and where the limits are. It is not a verdict on any product.
A scientific-grading methodology, not a legal checklist
Every ingredient page carries a grade. The grade describes the strength of the evidence, not how good the ingredient is — a grade A ingredient can still be wrong for you, and a grade C one can still be worth trying.
| Grade | Means | Typical example |
|---|---|---|
| A | Controlled human trials, consistent direction of effect | Copper peptides for collagen |
| B | One good human trial, or several small or uncontrolled ones | Argireline for wrinkle depth |
| C | Plausible mechanism, human outcome data thin or absent | Thymosin alpha-1 outside its approved indications |
| D | Animal or laboratory work only — and usually marketed anyway | BPC-157, TB-500 |
How pages are written
Each page starts from primary literature, not vendor copy or secondary blogs. We record what the study population was, what was actually measured, and how big the effect was. Where a widely repeated claim traces back to a single animal study, we say so — in our experience that is usually the most useful sentence on the page.
Every page opens with a plain-English summary before any technical detail, because a page only a specialist can read isn't explaining anything. The detail then follows underneath, unabridged.
Pages are dated and versioned. When the evidence or the legal position changes, the page changes and the change is logged.
Regulatory scope
Unless a page says otherwise, every statement about approval status, legal status, or enforcement action on this site describes the United States — FDA approval, US prescription law, US enforcement records. That's worth stating plainly, because it isn't always obvious from a single page: a drug can be approved in the US and not elsewhere, or the reverse. Our own Atosiban page covers a drug approved in Canada and the EU that has never been approved in the US at all; our Semaglutide page notes that Health Canada authorized a generic years before one is expected in the US, for reasons that have nothing to do with either country's safety review.
We're adding Health Canada context to pages where a real, sourced divergence exists, starting with the ones above — not translating every US claim into a Canadian one by assumption. Where no Canada-specific note appears, we simply haven't verified a difference yet, not confirmed there isn't one. The same caution applies to any other country: absence of a note here is not a claim about that country's regulatory position.
What we won't do
- Sell unapproved drugs behind a "research use only" label. The FDA's position is that the disclaimer doesn't shield anyone, because intended use is inferred from the whole marketing context.
- Sell reconstitution supplies. Bacteriostatic water and syringes sold next to a "research chemical" are cited as evidence of supplying an injectable drug for human use.
- Publish dosing protocols for anything prescription-only. That's a prescriber's job.
- Take money for placement in the Library. Not now, not at any size.
- Use before-and-after photographs as evidence. They're testimony, not data.
How we make money
Where a cosmetic or skincare product passes our review, we may link to it with a disclosed affiliate link, and we may earn a commission if you buy through that link. Affiliate links are labelled. We never link to, monetize or encourage injectable, research-use-only or unapproved peptides. We may also show clearly labelled display ads served by an ad network. We block ads for injectable, research-use-only and unapproved peptides, and for prescription drugs and supplements. Concretely: no vendor pays to be listed, ranked, or reviewed favorably — on the Library or the Register. That's a standing methodology fact, checkable on every page, not a one-time claim we made once and stopped updating.
We do not sell products ourselves, so there is no retail margin. Ads and commissions never change ratings, verdicts, order or evidence grades, and pass or fail is never for sale. Whatever we earn, three things stay true: the Library stays free of paid placement; the assessment criteria do not change to suit it; and a commercial relationship affects neither an evidence grade nor a Register result. We count how many times each of the Register's outbound links is clicked — a per-brand total, with no cookies and no record of who clicked.
We'd rather you were suspicious of this than trusting. Check whether the Register ever lists a brand we earn nothing from — if it never does, we've drifted. See how this compares to the typical affiliate-embedded review model elsewhere in this market for why we built it this way.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it and log the correction publicly on the page, with the date and what changed. A record you can't correct isn't a record, and a correction nobody can see isn't a correction. The Register keeps its own corrections log for listing-specific fixes — see the Corrections section on the Register page — and commits to reviewing any reported error within 5 business days.