When used well, hedging language can indicate a genuine need for more conclusive proof, for example, in the case where a researcher is reporting findings from a first trial:

Preliminary results suggest that ...

This standard sentence construction has a number of variations. Authors might replace the word 'suggest' with another verb such as 'indicate'. They might show yet greater caution by writing 'seem to suggest' or even 'would seem to suggest'.

The benefit of hedging language is that it allows researchers to bring possibly valuable observations to the attention of a critical scientific community:

The data reported here appear to support the assumption that …

Initial observations suggest that there may be a link between …

Similar introductory expressions can be found in Manchester University's academic phrase bank.