PT Digest pulls the same pool of studies regardless of which ranking mode you choose. The toggle only changes the order in which studies are presented to you.

Best Evidence ranking

Each paper receives a score from 0–100 based on three factors. Papers with higher scores appear first. Weights adjust automatically based on your active filters.

Journal tier

Study design

Recency

Study design is classified using PubMed publication type tags with title-text parsing as fallback. Tier 1 journals are curated per specialty. Scores are assigned at digest render time and shown on each card. Hover or tap a score to see the full breakdown.

Best Match ranking

Studies are ordered using PubMed's own relevance algorithm — the same ranking system used by researchers worldwide at pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. PubMed ranks papers based on how closely they match the condition query, weighting title matches more heavily than abstract matches and factoring in term frequency across the full text.

PT Digest then applies one additional step: Tier 1 journals are promoted within the relevance order, so high-quality topically relevant papers surface above lower-quality ones at the same relevance level.

In Best Match mode, paper scores are not shown because the ranking is driven by topical relevance, not the PT Digest scoring system. Study design badges and Tier 1 labels remain visible as quality indicators.