Cabdirect
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Cabdirect

Editorial Policy

CAB Direct is an independent science and evidence publication. The editorial standard is built around traceable claims, clear limits on what content can recommend, and a visible distinction between current editorial material and historical archive records.

Core editorial principles

  • Verifiability. Numbers, dates, ranges and claims about research results must be supported by traceable sources.
  • Explanation, not prescription. Articles explain what is known, how certain it is and where the evidence stops. They do not provide individual diagnoses, medication or supplement dosing, veterinary treatment protocols, pesticide-use instructions or investment advice.
  • Archive transparency. Historical CAB Direct record pages identify themselves as archive material and direct readers to the corresponding record on CABI Digital Library when it is available. Editorial content does not present CABI as a partner or operator of the current publication.

Sources and fact-checking

Source choice depends on subject. The project brief prioritises primary research, systematic reviews and authoritative institutional sources rather than content farms, forums or unsourced summaries. Key source families include:

  • Health and medicine: PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, WHO, CDC, ECDC, NICE, EMA and FDA.
  • Nutrition: EFSA, USDA FoodData Central, SACN, WHO/FAO nutrient reports and NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.
  • Agriculture and plants: FAOSTAT, USDA services, Eurostat, EPPO, RHS, Kew POWO and recognised taxonomic databases.
  • Animals and veterinary topics: FAO DAD-IS, WOAH, RCVS/AVMA, breed associations and ICAR.
  • Environment and climate: IPCC, IPBES, NOAA, NASA Earth Observatory, UNEP, Copernicus and national meteorological services.
  • Primary studies: DOI-linked records from publishers and research indexes such as Crossref and PubMed.

Every quoted figure should make clear what was measured, where it applies and when it was measured. When sources disagree, the article should describe the range or disagreement rather than force a single number.

Health and nutrition review

Health and nutrition content has additional safeguards. A qualified medical reviewer reads these articles before publication. Each article includes an evidence-level label that is justified in the text, and animal or in-vitro findings are not presented as if they were demonstrated human outcomes.

For vaccines and infectious disease, the project brief sets the reference position around the scientific consensus represented by major public-health bodies such as WHO, CDC and ECDC. Historical studies are presented as history of science, with context about what has changed since publication.

The rating definitions are set out in /how-we-rate-evidence/.

Archive records

Archive pages exist to preserve useful historical routes into research. The original CABI abstract is not copied. Metadata may be used to identify the work, and the page should rely on independent or primary sources to explain what the research addressed and how it is understood today. Missing metadata is not guessed.

Updates and corrections

Health and nutrition evidence is re-checked on a six-month cycle. When a correction changes a substantive claim, the change is dated and remains visible rather than being silently overwritten.

Correction handling is described in /corrections/.

Authorship and accountability

Articles identify a named author and role. Contributor information is collected on /authors/, and author profile links are published only when the underlying identity and external profile can be verified.