Methodology

How It Works

Every week, we review thousands of newly published research papers. Each selected paper undergoes a thorough, multi-dimensional evaluation where the full paper is read and graded across five scoring dimensions.

Our grading process reads each article and produces a structured assessment with per-dimension justifications. Each score is accompanied by a written rationale explaining why that score was assigned, making the evaluation transparent and auditable.

Citations are independently validated against external academic databases to verify that referenced works exist and are correctly attributed. Papers are also compared against each other within the same weekly cohort to ensure relative rankings reflect genuine quality differences.

The top papers are published to the leaderboard with their full evaluation breakdown, so readers can see exactly why each paper earned its ranking.

Scoring Dimensions

Each paper is scored on five dimensions, each from 0 to 100. Scores are combined into an overall score, then adjusted by model confidence.

Novelty

Evaluates the originality of the contribution. How new are the ideas, methods, or findings? Does the work introduce genuinely novel concepts or is it an incremental improvement?

Rigor

Assesses the methodological soundness and technical correctness. Are the proofs valid? Are experiments well-designed with proper controls? Are claims supported by evidence?

Applicability

Measures real-world relevance and potential impact. Can the methods be applied to practical problems? How broad is the potential audience? Does it solve a real need?

Clarity

Judges the quality of writing and presentation. Is the paper well-organized? Are the key ideas explained clearly? Are figures and tables informative?

Citation Quality

Evaluates the quality of references and related work coverage. Does the paper cite relevant prior work? Are comparisons fair and comprehensive? Are key baselines included?