Trust is everything when it comes to your health — we get it. So we want to share how we go about creating content that’s 100 percent accurate, actionable, expert-backed, and thoroughly Greatist.

Health and wellness information is everywhere — the internet offers a virtual sea of advice on how to eat better, feel better, love better, live better. But too often, it’s more intimidating than illuminating, more confusing than constructive.

Greatist is out to change that. We follow facts, not trends. We translate science-y stuff into smart, simple language you can understand without a PhD, PsyD, or RDN.

We know that how much mileage you get out of wellness content depends on everything from expertise to experience. So we’ve made it our mission to include only the best and most accurate information in our content. Greatist breaks down the research and polishes all the relatable nuggets into diamonds for you, so you can spend less time fact-finding and more time shaping a version of health that works for you.

We want to help you feel good in ways large and small and live a happier, healthier life on your terms. Period.

Whether you’re looking for a new workout to show your abs who’s boss, digging around to see if the claims behind a new food trend are fad or fact, struggling with depression, or trying to expand your boundaries (yes, even the bedroom kind), you’ll find applicable Greatist stories crafted with expertise, authority, and trust.

Each article you read goes through a capital-P Process — vetting, research, and an expert’s lens — to get you health information that lets you focus on what matters: you.

We aim to help you get to the point without cutting corners. This means you can expect our content to be comprehensive, easy to read, and easy to apply to your life. We strive to be relevant, unravel biases, and stick to the highest journalistic standards. This means fact checking, sourcing primary documents, and evaluating writers and experts.

To double down on what we do best, we’ve teamed up with the clinicians, doctors, and experts at Healthline. Their robust review process covers all our clinical and medical content, which includes everything from weight management to sexual health and from relationship guidance to chronic conditions.

Read more here about Healthline’s medical integrity network of midwives, pharmacists, registered dietitians, and more.

At Greatist, we work with top health and wellness writers. To maintain our goal of inclusivity and health equity across all our content, we recruit and train writers with personal experiences that are relevant to the health topics we cover.

POVs: Sharing others’ stories

We also publish personal stories of health and wellness on Greatist. We respect individual perspectives and allow people to share their stories their way. In these instances, we balance freedom of expression with ethical writing practices. But because opinion is, well, opinion, we label it as such so it’s not confused with our expert-approved medical and health content.

Our medical and health content is thoroughly researched, and sources are vetted to ensure they are recent, authoritative, and objective. Our strict sourcing guidelines focus on primary sources (peer-reviewed studies and interviews with experts) and trustworthy secondary sources (academic research institutions, government agencies, and medical associations).

You can find a list of all sources used, including interviews, at the bottom of each article, under the Sources heading. (The sources are initially hidden, but they expand with a click — we truly find and use a lot!)

Health information is constantly changing. New research emerges, old ideas are disproven, and terminology becomes out of date.

At Greatist, we continually monitor and update our content to make sure we’re sharing the most up-to-date and accurate information possible. To make this a reality, we have entire teams of editors and experts focused on identifying and updating inaccurate or unclear information.

Our Medical Integrity team keeps tabs on changes in standards of care, new clinical guidelines, drug approvals or recalls, and major practice recommendations. The team brings these insights to our editors and partners so that content can be updated to reflect the latest, most accurate, and most useful information.

You may see a few dates on our content. Each of these refers to a different step in our editorial process.

  • Each piece of content is given a “written on” date when it is originally written and published on our site.
  • Every time a piece of content is reviewed by an expert in our Medical Network, it receives a new “medical review” date.
  • Every time a piece of content is verified by one of our professional fact-checkers, it receives a new “fact-checked” date.
  • Whenever a piece of content is modified, it receives a new “updated on” date. The modifications may include correcting minor inaccuracies, adding new information, replacing images and sources, or making any other changes to improve the value of the content for you, the reader.

Here are some other ways we continually monitor and update content:

  • Regular audits. We perform regular audits of content to address changes in language and medical terminology, and trends in health communities.
  • Annual brand vetting. We reevaluate vetted brands on a yearly basis and update any content that references those brands to reflect any changes in the brand’s performance against our vetting criteria.
  • Immediate action from feedback. We invite reader feedback on our content and take immediate action to address any potential issues. When a reader alerts us about a potential issue with our content — such as inaccurate, outdated, unclear, or contradictory information — we take immediate action. Our editorial and medical teams research the feedback, determine what revisions are needed, and update the content.

Our voice is inclusive, friendly, sincere, and easy to read. We love a good pun but we don’t shy away from tougher topics. We champion diversity and equity, meaning we cover difficult topics with nuance and seek to incorporate unheard voices. We use empathetic language to tell judgment-free stories, and we make intentional choices to remove stigma, stereotypes, and prejudices that often go unnoticed in the healthcare system.

As for grammar and style, we look to the Associated Press and our internal language team to inform our Style Guide. This helps us stay consistent, accurate, and respectful. As language evolves, so do we.

Plagiarism

We have a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism of any kind and utilize tools, along with a team of seasoned copy editors, to check content prior to publishing it.

We can’t expect to be your partner in health unless we take your lead on what the picture of health looks like. That’s right: Our readers (you!) matter most, and we keep you at the forefront, so that Greatist can be a truly trusted resource that’s there for you when you need it.

This “you matter” approach guides everything we do at editorial. Think of Greatist as your friendly GPS provider — giving you the right tips and directions so all you have to focus on is pumping the gas pedal at the speed you wish.