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Editorial methodology

How a Body Lab page is written, checked, translated and reviewed: the stages of the editorial chain, the information every document must carry, the levels of certainty, the style rules and the health policy.
Body Lab explains how the human body works. That subject has to be verifiable: a page must say where its claims come from, how solid each claim is, and what it does not cover.
This page describes the method applied to all content, without exception. It is public because it is part of what you should be able to check.

The editorial chain

Every document goes through the same sequence of states. A document only moves to the next stage once the previous one is finished, and it can go back at any point.

The eight states of a document

  • 1
    Draft
    Stage 1
    The topic is framed, the outline is written and the sources are gathered before any writing begins. A draft is never publicly visible.
  • 2
    Editorial review
    Stage 2
    A review of structure, vocabulary and clarity. A check that every claim is tied to a declared source and that no promise has been made.
  • 3
    Scientific review
    Stage 3
    A review by someone competent on the subject, responsible for checking accuracy, the levels of certainty stated and the limits declared.
  • 4
    Translation
    Stage 4
    Production of the version in the other language, with the same translation group identifier and the same terminology.
  • 5
    Automated validation
    Stage 5
    Blocking checks run at compile time: document schema, presence of the sources cited, completeness of the translation pair, absence of language mixing, uniqueness of URLs, existence of the linked content.
  • 6
    Published
    Stage 6
    The page is reachable, with its publication date, its last review date and its next review date.
  • 7
    Due for review
    Stage 7
    A state triggered by the review deadline, by a reported correction or by a scientific publication that changes the state of knowledge.
  • 8
    Archived
    Stage 8
    The document is no longer maintained. It leaves the published corpus rather than staying online with outdated information.

Where the scientific review stands today

As of the publication date of this page, external scientific review is pending. The content has been through writing, internal editorial review, translation and automated validation, but no outside scientific reviewer has yet signed off on the corpus.
This status is displayed on every page, in the block that gives the author and the review date. It is not hidden and will not be changed until the review has taken place. When it does, the name and standing of the reviewer will appear on the pages concerned and on the editorial team page.

What every document must contain

A document cannot be published if any of these elements is missing. Most of them are checked automatically at compile time.
  • The author.
  • The reviewer, as soon as the content deals with health or physiology.
  • The publication date.
  • The last review date.
  • The next review date.
  • The references used.
  • The level of certainty of the main claims.
  • The limits of the content and of the models used.
  • The statement that the content is educational and not medical.
  • The version number of the document.
  • The source language and the linked translation.

The levels of certainty

Not every claim is equally solid. Rather than presenting them all on the same footing, Body Lab labels them. Four categories are used, displayed directly in the body of the pages.

The four levels of certainty

Level
What it means
What it does not allow
Established
A converging result, reproduced by independent work and not disputed in principle.
Concluding that it applies identically to every individual.
Probable
A coherent body of evidence, whose size or conditions remain debated.
Presenting it as a certainty or drawing a firm instruction from it.
Uncertain
A plausible hypothesis, with limited or conflicting data, or data from poorly comparable settings.
Citing it without mentioning the disagreement.
Simplification
A deliberately simplified representation used to make a mechanism understandable.
Taking it for a complete description of the phenomenon.
A figure is never published on its own. It always comes with the population studied, the duration and the conditions. An observed association is never presented as a cause-and-effect relationship, and a single study is never turned into a general rule.

The style rules

These rules serve understanding, not style for its own sake.
  • Everyday vocabulary comes before technical vocabulary, which is then named.
  • A technical term is defined the first time it appears, on every page where it is used.
  • Sentences are direct, headings descriptive rather than sensational.
  • No absolute promise, no performance superlative, no numerical goal presented as achievable.
  • Association and causation are distinguished explicitly.
  • A published page never mixes French and English.

The health policy

Body Lab is an educational product. It is not a medical service, not a diagnostic tool and not a substitute for a consultation.
No page makes a diagnosis, gives a dosage, analyses an individual situation or encourages anyone to ignore pain. A page may indicate that professional advice is appropriate in certain circumstances, but it never passes judgement on your case.
Caution
What this method does not guarantee
A rigorous editorial chain reduces the risk of error, it does not remove it. Knowledge evolves, a source can be misread, a simplification can mislead.
That is why every page displays its review date, its limits and its sources: so that you can judge how fresh it is and trace what it claims back to its origin.

The translation policy

The French and English infrastructure has existed since day one, and production is French first. English is a translation, not an independent rewrite: the two versions of a page share a translation group identifier and follow the same terminology.
Translations are produced by an artificial intelligence agent, then put through the same blocking automated checks as the French pages. Three checks decide whether a page is published: the completeness of the translation group, terminological consistency and the absence of language mixing on a single page. No English page is indexed until its translation is complete.
How sources are chosen and cited is covered on a separate page: our sources.
Put it into practice in Shapier

See how Shapier chooses and cites its sources

Shapier's dedicated page lists the references it uses and explains how they are chosen and cited.
See how Shapier chooses and cites its sources
Body Lab explains; Shapier lets you act and track.

Read next

  • Our sources
    How Body Lab chooses, ranks and cites its sources: which kinds of publication are preferred, why no digital identifier is published without verification, and how to report an error.
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  • Shapier editorial team
    All Body Lab content is signed collectively by the Shapier editorial team. This page describes its role, its area of competence, its verification method and its declarations of interest.
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  • About Body Lab
    Body Lab is the educational layer of the Shapier ecosystem: it explains what happens in the body when you move, train, eat and recover. This page describes its mission, its place and its limits.
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  • Privacy
    Body Lab can be read without an account. Bookmarks, history, pathway progress and video playback positions stay on your device, and can be exported or deleted from the settings.
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  • The body: muscles, landmarks and functions
    The Body pillar answers one simple question: where is a structure and what does it do? The pillar describes the major muscles and their attachments, the joints, the tissues all of that is made of, and the systems that make them work.
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Available offline

Offline download is available in the mobile app.

Trust and method

Author
equipe-editoriale-shapier
Editorial review
Thanh Chau
Scientific review
Pending
Published on
August 2, 2026
Reviewed on August 2, 2026
Next review due August 2, 2027
Educational content. Body Lab does not diagnose and does not replace professional advice.
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