Greetings!
Nick Milazzo here. I’m a Lead Researcher at Examine, and am coordinating a brand new page update process. You’ll soon notice Examine pages being updated at a much quicker pace, which also happens to be the number one request we get from readers!
Examine has over a thousand pages, and updating them on a limited budget is a daunting task. Remember, we’re a small company that’s entirely self-funded. Fortunately, we have some of the leanest and meanest nutrition researchers out there, and they’re always chomping at the bit to dive into a topic. That said, enthusiasm and intellectual horsepower aren’t the only necessities for writing high-quality pages and keeping them updated — it also takes a good strategy. Here’s what we do currently to update and create the pages on our site:
Step 1: A “trigger” event tells us it’s time to get to work.
Historically, our most common triggers were: a certain amount of time passing since the previous update and readers making a request. Starting this month, we’ll also trigger page updates based on new studies being released or specific topics trending online. One of our big goals is to make sure we catch new research as quickly as possible, so that you’re never reading an out-of-date page.
Step 2: Our researchers read and analyze new studies, and decide what should be included on the page.
Being comprehensive is great, but being correct is essential. While we typically include most of the studies relevant to a topic, some don’t make the cut. If a study’s methods are dubious or the data looks like it could be fudged, we won’t put it on our page.
Step 3: The researcher writes and modifies the page’s FAQs based on what they’ve learned.
Our researchers are smart and (almost more importantly) naturally curious. We encourage them to write about the aspects of a topic they find most interesting as often as possible. We always cover certain core questions, and also strive to include answers to questions we get from readers.
Step 4: The new material gets edited and reviewed by the team and by outside experts.
Our researchers are as objective and accurate as they come, but nobody is immune to mistakes. As a result, every piece of writing, whether it’s a single-sentence addition or a brand new page, is edited by one of our ace copyeditors and reviewed by at least one additional researcher, and often an external expert like an MD, RD, or PhD to make sure the material is accurate and relevant.
Having an interdisciplinary team check our material also ensures we minimize any mistakes or oversights. It’s also part of what makes us … well, us. We want you to know it’s not just one person writing what they think is correct.
And that’s it! Wash, rinse, repeat.
Did you find this look behind the scenes interesting? I want to make sure you have a clear view of how much we think about our strategy for keeping our pages up to date. If you have any questions about our process, just hit ‘Reply’ to this email.
I also have one more bit of good news — we’ve had three specialized researchers start working for Examine just this month (two pharmacists and a physician), and we have a whole slate of updates that are now coming through the pipeline. We’re also updating our site to make it far easier to find our newest updates, but I’ll let Kamal elaborate on that soon!
Best,
Nick Milazzo, MS, MPH
Lead Researcher