How the association reads the evidence

Every research summary the association publishes is held to one editorial standard, and this page states it. The standard exists because the audience for this site includes clinicians, manufacturers, educators and journalists, and each of them is capable of checking a claim against its source. Content that cannot survive that check has no place here.

What counts as a claim

A factual statement about foam rolling, range of motion, tissue behaviour, or recovery is a claim. Claims carry a citation to a checkable source: a peer-reviewed publication, a published standard, a patent filing, or a court record. Where no such source exists, the summary says so in plain terms. The phrase we use is deliberate: we are not aware of controlled evidence for this.

Commonly recommended and supported by trial evidence are different statements, and our summaries keep them apart. A practice can be widespread, plausible, and unproven at the same time. Reporting that combination accurately is most of the work.

How uncertainty is reported

Effect sizes are reported as published, including when they are small or null. A null result is content. Where the available trials are small, short in duration, or unblinded, the summary says that before it says anything else about the findings.

The association does not publish the phrase studies show without naming the studies. Vague authority is the failure mode of this genre, and it is the one we exist to avoid.

What we will not publish

No rankings of products or manufacturers. No awards. No comparisons naming a member brand favourably. Certification against a published standard, applied identically to every applicant, is the only evaluative content the association produces. Where a member brand is discussed for any reason, the material connection is disclosed on the page.

Fabricated references are the single worst failure available to an evidence body. Drafts carry an explicit marker where a citation is still needed, and a page does not publish while one remains.