Policies
Disclaimer
This is not professional advice
The Long Table publishes summaries of published research. It is not a clinical, psychological, medical, legal or financial service, and nothing on this site or in any publication sold through it constitutes professional advice. Nobody writing here holds a clinical licence or is presented as doing so. Reading anything published here creates no practitioner relationship, and nothing published here should be treated as a substitute for consulting a qualified professional in the reader's own jurisdiction.
No diagnosis and no treatment
Nothing published here diagnoses, assesses, screens for or treats any condition, whether psychological, relational or medical. Descriptions of research are descriptions of what researchers measured in the populations they studied. They are not assessments of anyone, and they are not instructions.
Nothing here is written about the reader
The Long Table has no information about who is reading and makes no assumption about it. No page here describes, infers or addresses any reader's relationship, household, circumstances, history or state of mind. Where research findings are reported, they describe study populations and nothing else. A finding about an average in a sample is not a statement about any individual, and it is not intended or presented as one.
No claim about outcomes
No result of any kind is promised, stated or implied. Nothing published here is described as a method, system, formula, programme or sequence that produces an effect, because nothing published here is one. The research summarised on this site consists largely of correlational studies with acknowledged limitations, and those limitations are reported alongside the findings rather than omitted.
No testimonials
This publication does not collect, solicit, host or publish testimonials, reviews, ratings, reader stories, case studies or before-and-after accounts, on this site or in its advertising. Individual accounts cannot be generalised, and in a publication of this kind they function as an implied claim about what a reader can expect — a claim The Long Table is not in a position to make. Any testimonial appearing elsewhere and attributed to this publication did not originate here.
Accuracy and third-party material
Research is summarised carefully from the published papers, but summaries can be wrong and the underlying literature changes. Where an error is identified it is corrected on the page concerned, with a dated note, as described on the masthead. Studies cited here are the work of their authors; describing a study is not an endorsement of it, and several notes on this site set out published objections to the work they discuss. Links to external sites are provided for reference and imply no responsibility for their content.
This is not a crisis service
The Long Table cannot respond to urgent situations. The support address is read on weekdays during office hours and is not monitored at other times.
Anyone facing an immediate risk to their safety or someone else's should contact local emergency services straight away. Crisis and helpline services operating in most countries can be located through the international directory at findahelpline.com.
Age
This publication is intended for readers aged 18 and over and is not directed at minors.