Do headlines about a new "study" make you skeptical? Good. Not every study is equal, and news coverage often skips the limits and methods. This tag gathers our coverage of research, surveys and reports and gives you quick tools to judge what matters.
On CottonCandi News you'll find pieces that reference real studies and data — for example the SullivanCotter survey on nurse salaries, Human Rights Watch reporting on passport practices for Tibetans and Uyghurs, and tourism figures that tracked a 5% rise in Europe. We link to sources and highlight the parts that affect readers directly.
Before you accept a study's claim, ask these short questions: Who paid for the research? How big is the sample and is it representative? Are the methods clear — surveys, experiments, or modelling? Has other research found the same thing? What limitations do the authors list? Those answers tell you whether a finding is solid or tentative.
Funding matters. A report funded by an interested company can still be useful, but check whether independent researchers back the same conclusion. Sample size and how participants were chosen change how far results can be applied. Small or biased samples can’t reliably predict national trends.
Headlines want clicks. They often compress nuance into a single sentence. Open the article and find the part that links to the original report. Scan the abstract or executive summary, and look for key numbers and confidence intervals. If the story uses broad terms like "experts say" or "may suggest," treat the result as preliminary.
Watch out for absolute claims based on correlation. If a study says A is linked with B, it often means they appear together — not that A causes B. Journalists sometimes miss that distinction. If a study is described as "the first" to find something, check whether independent labs have replicated it.
Practical tips: favor articles that quote researchers, list sample sizes, include clear dates, and show where the data came from. If a story references a named survey or report (like SullivanCotter or Human Rights Watch), search for that document and scan the methods section yourself.
Want a quick rule of thumb? Strong claims need strong evidence: large samples, transparent methods, peer review or expert consensus, and replication. Weak evidence often shows up as small samples, vague methods, or lots of hedging language.
If you care about a topic, follow this tag to see our coverage of studies and reports. We aim to highlight the facts, explain the limits, and give you tools to judge the news you read. Got a study you want us to check? Send a tip and we'll look into it.
