KneeSchool/About/Editorial standards
How a page reaches this site
Editorial standards and the QA gate
Every page passes four stages in order. The last stage is a person, and there is no route around it.
Four stages, in order
Every page passes four stages in order. The last stage is a person, and there is no route around it.
Draft to a brief
A page starts from a brief that names its tiers, what it must cover and what it must leave to a deeper page. The second list is what keeps the spiral a spiral.
Verify the evidence
A separate pass treats the draft as suspect. It confirms each reference exists and that the source supports the claim as written, at the stated size and population.
Edit for plain speech
A third pass holds British spelling, short sentences and varied rhythm. It works from the verified text alone, so it cannot introduce a new fact.
Consultant review
A consultant knee surgeon approves, amends or rejects. An amendment returns to the style gate. Nothing publishes by any other route.
Rules that cannot be waived
- Consultant sign off is mandatory. There is no path from the automated checks to publication that avoids a named reviewer.
- No invented references. A reference that cannot be retrieved is removed. A missing reference is acceptable. A fabricated one is a failure.
- No commercial content for minors. The junior tier carries no product placement, no supplement content and no promotion of clinical services.
- Guidance carries a date. Every management page records the guideline version it was checked against, and that check repeats each year.
- Uncertainty is stated. Where the evidence is thin or conflicting, the page says so under its own heading rather than settling the question by tone.
The style gate
House style is enforced by a deterministic check rather than by judgement, because an editor working at volume will eventually let something through and a rule will not.
It rejects em and en dashes, a list of stock phrases, American spellings, any citation marker without a matching reference, and any citation marker at all in junior or patient text. A page that fails goes back for another edit, twice at most, then to a human.