How we use research

The research section of this site exists to answer real questions parents and teachers ask about times tables — with what the evidence actually says, not with marketing claims dressed up as science. That only works if we’re clear about where the evidence comes from and how confident it is.

How we select sources

Where it exists, we cite peer-reviewed research: published, reviewed studies and meta-analyses. Where peer-reviewed evidence is thin or doesn’t yet exist for a specific question, we say so, and where we cite official guidance (like the DfE’s Multiplication Tables Check framework) or expert commentary (articles written by researchers for a general audience, rather than peer-reviewed papers themselves), we label it as such next to the source, rather than presenting it at the same level as a published study.

Every source on every page carries a type label: peer-reviewed study, meta-analysis, official guidance, expert commentary, or preprint. A preprint is research that has been shared publicly but hasn’t yet completed peer review — we still find it useful to cite, but flag it as provisional.

How we handle uncertainty

Some questions in this field don’t have a single settled answer — for example, the optimal order for practising times tables once they’re established is still being researched, even though the evidence on how to introduce new facts is clearer. Where we’re aware of a finding that complicates or contradicts what we say elsewhere on the site, we’d rather cite it ourselves than have someone else point it out first.

How pages get updated

Each science page carries a “Last reviewed” date. When new relevant evidence is published, we update the page rather than leaving it as a permanent snapshot of what we knew when it was written.

What we haven’t tested

TabTabTab itself has not been the subject of an independent study. The research on this site concerns the general mechanisms the app is built on — retrieval practice, spaced repetition, interleaving, immediate feedback — not the app as a product. If and when an independent study of the app itself is carried out, we will publish it here.