Mentions
A national survey where some participants are Black, but results are never reported by race.
41%
KIN Relevance
How KIN knows what actually belongs in your answer.
Not every study that mentions Black people is meaningfully about Black life.
Meaningfully about
A study designed around Black mothers, analyzing outcomes and experiences specific to them.
94%
Illustrative examples.
What it is
Mention is not the same as relevance.
A study can include Black participants without actually telling us anything meaningful about Black outcomes.
KIN Relevance is designed to look beyond simple keyword matches and help identify research where Black populations are meaningfully connected to the study population, analysis, findings, and question.
It looks at each study across six dimensions.
- 01
Population relevance
Are Black populations central to the study?
- 02
Topic alignment
Does the study actually address the question being asked?
- 03
Analytic relevance
Are Black-specific outcomes meaningfully analyzed?
- 04
Findings relevance
Does the research produce findings that directly inform the question?
- 05
Contextual relevance
Do geography, age, gender, setting, or timeframe affect applicability?
- 06
Evidence usability
Is the research record complete enough to support useful interpretation?
Match Score
One number, with its reasons attached.
Match Score summarizes how closely a study connects to your question and to Black populations. It measures relevance to the question, not overall research quality.
Screens from the KIN prototype. Studies shown are demo data.
- 90–100
Very strong match
Black populations are central, and the study directly addresses the question.
- 75–89
Strong match
Closely connected, with some limits on population, context, or focus.
- 60–74
Moderate match
Useful context, but only partly answers the question for this population.
- Below 60
Limited match
Mentions the population or topic without meaningfully informing the question.
94%
Very strong match
A multi-city study of Black mothers, with outcomes analyzed specifically for them.
78%
Strong match
Race-stratified findings on the topic, drawn from a single state’s data.
52%
Limited match
A national sample that includes Black participants but does not report results by race.
Illustrative examples. Bands are indicative and may be refined.
Two different questions
Relevance is not evidence strength.
Relevance asks: does this study speak to my question?
Evidence strength asks: how much weight can its findings bear?
KIN shows both, separately, so a well-matched study is never mistaken for a definitive one.
Evidence strength →
Strong study, different question
Rigorous, but not meaningfully about this population or question.
Core evidence
Highly relevant and methodologically strong. Carries the most weight.
Background at most
Limited relevance and limited evidence.
Promising — interpret with care
Closely matched to the question, but the evidence is emerging or limited.
Why This Matched
Every score explains itself.
Open any study to see, in plain language, why it was prioritized — and where its fit is less certain.
Illustrative demo content
Demo study: Delivery-hospital quality and severe maternal outcomes among Black patients
94%
Why this matched
- Population (strong)Black women are the primary study population.
- Topic (strong)Directly examines pregnancy-related outcomes.
- Analysis (strong)Reports outcomes specifically for Black participants.
- Findings (strong)Findings speak to causes of the disparity.
- Context (partial)Urban hospitals only; may not reflect rural settings.
- Usability (strong)Methods, sample, and limitations are clearly reported.
Transparency & limitations
What Match Score can and cannot tell you.
- An assessment, not a verdict
- Match Score helps prioritize. It does not decide what is true or what matters to you.
- Only as complete as the record
- When a study is poorly described, KIN can say less about it — and says so.
- Explained, not exposed
- We do not publish exact scoring weights, but every match comes with a plain-language reason.
- Nothing is hidden
- Lower-matching studies remain available. You can always see the full set of results.
- Always improving
- Relevance assessment will be refined with researchers and early users over time.
Early access
Help shape what KIN becomes.
We are building KIN with researchers, students, educators, community leaders, and early users who believe credible research should be easier to access and understand.