Transmission Credibility Metric (Prompt for Evaluating Transmission Studies)

This resource provides a structured prompt for evaluating studies that claim to demonstrate viral or microbial transmission. The prompt guides users through a set of core criteria and extended considerations, helping to identify methodological flaws such as artificial inoculation, reliance on proxies, inadequate controls, and environmental confounders. The prompt is designed to be transparent, reproducible, and easy to apply, enabling researchers, students, and critical readers to assess the credibility of transmission studies in a consistent and systematic way.