Editorial Policy

LifeByLogic is an independent editorial publication of interactive decision tools across cognitive science, behavioral psychology, and life-direction. Every tool on the site begins with the same question: what does the peer-reviewed literature actually say, and how can we surface it in a way a person can use?

LifeByLogic-created measures carry one explicit status: LifeByLogic original exploratory instrument. Their constructs may be grounded in peer-reviewed literature, but the LifeByLogic instrument itself is not a validated clinical measure unless the page explicitly identifies a separate validated third-party scale. We document the distinction, methodology, citations, and limitations on every tool.

Each tool cites the research behind its questions and scoring: peer-reviewed studies, established government datasets, or methodology papers from recognized research institutions. When a number on a tool page is our own design choice, such as a cut-off between result bands, the methodology says so. We prefer primary sources and link to the underlying research wherever possible.

We do not cite blog posts, popular-press articles, or non-peer-reviewed claims as the foundation of a tool's methodology. Where peer-reviewed data is unavailable, we either decline to build the tool or label the methodology as exploratory.

Citations appear on each tool's methodology page, or in its methodology section for single-page tools, with full bibliographic details. Many include a DOI link.

LifeByLogic has no outside investors. The publication does not sell user data, does not run ad-targeting pixels, and does not accept payment from any party that could influence what tools we build, how we frame their methodology, or what conclusions we report.

The publication is paid for by optional one-time premium reports and the optional LifeGraph+ subscription, bought by readers. Partner links to services and courses that one of our reviewers has vetted may also earn it a commission. They appear in labeled panels after a page’s own content or a test’s result, never on the Depression or Anxiety tests or beside a result held for care, and no partner can pay to change a tool, a result, a report or what we write. How we choose partners explains how they are vetted, reviewed each year and paid. A shared edition of The Logic Letter may also carry one labeled sponsor, vetted the same way and placed after the edition’s own content; Sponsor the Logic Letter sets out its rules. Find a professional lists licensed clinicians from the federal NPI Registry and credentialed coaches; a claimed or coach profile shows only after we check its license or credential in public records, listings are free, and a paid Featured place, if it is ever offered, is labeled, with every profile keeping the same check.

Where any of these revenue sources touch a piece of content, the relationship is disclosed inline. Sponsored content is always clearly labeled. Critically, a tool’s methodology and a report’s analysis are the same whether or not you pay — paying changes the depth of what we deliver to you, never the underlying science.

Every tool on LifeByLogic is developed by Abiot Y. Derbie, PhD — a cognitive neuroscientist whose academic background spans psychology (BSc and MSc) and cognitive neuroscience (PhD, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University), with research experience in neuroimaging and predictive modeling of brain–behavior relationships.

Eskezeia Y. Dessie, PhD, Research Fellow at Indiana University School of Medicine, reviews the scoring and results logic of the tools whose pages name a reviewer. Eskezeia Y. Dessie specializes in computational modeling, predictive analytics, and model validation. For each reviewed tool, the reviewer checks that outputs follow the documented method, tests edge cases, and confirms that results match the underlying math. Where a tool touches biomedical accuracy, clinical framing, or safety routing, its construct definitions and guardrails are additionally reviewed by Armin Allahverdy, PhD, a biomedical engineer specializing in physiological signal processing and biomedical instrumentation.

Author and reviewer credentials are on the About page, in plain text and in Schema.org structured data.

Contributed articles. A licensed clinician or credentialed coach whose profile is live on Find a professional may pitch an article for our Learn guides. Abiot Y. Derbie, PhD, approves the pitch and edits the finished article, which is checked against its sources and published only with his approval. It carries the author’s name and credential, one link to their profile, and a note at the top that says no one paid to publish it, LifeByLogic paid nothing for it, and any conflict the author declared. A reviewer is named only for a review they did. Write for LifeByLogic sets out the rules.

Every tool documents its method: the questions, how answers are scored, the limits, and the research it draws on. Where a tool compares your score with published reference data, its methodology names that data. Many of our own instruments have no reference data yet.

We say what each tool does not measure and where its conclusions are least certain. Many methodology pages also name the groups the underlying studies were run on, so you can judge how well the method applies to you.

Tools are versioned, and significant method changes are logged on the methodology page. We aim to review each tool and its sources every 6 to 12 months, and sooner when the research changes. Each tool page shows a version and a date.

LifeByLogic is not a clinical service, not a medical practice, not a financial advisor, and not a legal advisor. The tools are educational decision support, not professional advice.

Tools that touch health, mental health, or wellbeing do not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatment, or replace a licensed professional. A few use published screening scales, such as the GAD-7 for anxiety and the PHQ-9 for depression. Most use our own exploratory questions, and their pages say so. Tools that touch life direction, such as careers, relationships and money, model patterns. They do not make the choice for you or replace advice from someone who knows your situation.

Where a topic falls outside our editorial competence, we either decline to build the tool, explicitly label it as outside our scope, or refer readers to a more appropriate resource.

Methodology corrections, source clarifications, factual disputes, and editorial concerns are all welcome and can be sent to hello@lifebylogic.com. We read every message and respond, typically within a week. Material errors are corrected per our Corrections Policy.