Research Rascals
Choose your Research Rascal.
Consider source quality and responsible research.
8 characters ready · 120 exercises
Selecting evidence fairly
Cherry-Pick Charlie
Checks whether evidence was selected fairly from the relevant set, using stated criteria and time windows.
Traceable, relevant sources
Source Shady
Checks whether a claim's source can be found, is relevant to the claim, and has relationships or limits readers need to know.
Confidence in research findings
Certainty Zed
Checks whether conclusions about studies match their sample, replication, stated uncertainty and scope.
Findings stripped of their research context
Contextless Carl
Checks whether reports of a study keep who was studied, under what conditions, and the limitations the researchers stated.
Weighing studies by quality and body of evidence
False Balance Beast
Checks whether reports weigh relevant studies by their design, size and consistency rather than giving every study, or every headcount, equal say.
Relative vs absolute numbers, denominators and baselines
Frame Shifter
Checks whether research numbers are framed fairly: relative and absolute change, the right denominator, and chart baselines that show the real size of a difference.
Headlines and press releases vs actual methods and findings
Headline Hydra
Checks whether headlines, press releases and abstracts say what the supplied methods and findings actually support, and nothing more.
Affiliations, funding and peer review vs study methods
Tribal Trigger
Checks whether research is judged by its methods, data and disclosures rather than accepted or rejected only because of who funded it, where it came from or which side cites it.
Every scenario supplies its own facts. Lessons appear here only after editorial review.