Your reputation is the most valuable thing that bloggers have. That’s why I’m sharing my research tips for health bloggers for those looking to improve their skills. While many of these strategies apply to bloggers from other niches, they are especially important for health bloggers, as our work can help or hinder readers’ real lives.   

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Research Tips for Health Bloggers

Again, our reputations are our most valuable assets, and our blogs impact readers’ real lives. While I include a disclaimer as often as possible – something like “I am not a medical professional of any kind. Please talk to your doctor.” – I can’t control people’s lives. I can’t guarantee that a reader will talk to a medical professional before making a change and I can’t guarantee that that change will cause positive benefits. That’s why I try to include as much up-to-date and accurate information as possible. 

But to do that, I need to research, I need to prove that what I’m saying is true, and I need to make it clear when I’m sharing my own opinion.  

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General Online Research Tips

We’ve got to start at the beginning so we can get into the details! 

A simple Google search is a great way to start, but there are two key things you have to remember.

One – You need to strike a balance between being general enough to get the information you need and not being so general that you can’t find anything. 

Two – If you’re looking for an exact phrase, use quotation marks. 

I don’t suggest searching the fact as you remember it because then you might just find a source backing up what you want instead of the correct fact. Instead, search in question format. For example, search “how long does it take to get an endometriosis diagnosis” instead of “it takes 10 years to get an endometriosis diagnosis.” 

Sometimes I Google things like “rheumatoid arthritis definition” if I want a source for a thing I already know. I want an official definition that I can provide a credible source for and to back up what I’m saying. 

Which brings me to my next point: you need to have a standard way to display your sources. You’ll notice in my posts that I’m a fan of including (x) at the end of a sentence and linking the x. I’ll talk more about citations at the end of this post, but the important bit is that you should find a strategy that works for you and stick to it. You don’t want your readers to put in a lot of effort to find something.

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When Do I Need a Source?

There are a few situations in which you need sources.

If it’s a fact that could be up for debate, you need a source – Think about it this way: I don’t need a source for saying that Maine is a part of the United States, but I do need a source for saying that parts of Maine were originally a part of Canada. 

If it is crucial for your point, you need a source – A big reason why you should have sources is so if someone doubts something, they can easily look it up themself. So if someone comments on a post, “I agree with some of this but I don’t believe [insert fact here],” I can go, “Thanks so much! [insert fact here] is actually true, which you can see by looking at [source for fact], which is linked at the end of that sentence.” 

If you are quoting something or referring to something said by someone else, you need a source – This is a rule for everything and not just research. 

Look at this paragraph from my post What Is Endometriosis Like? An FAQ: 

There are a lot of ways to evaluate and rank endometriosis, but the most common is in stages, of which there are four (x). Johns Hopkins says, “The stages are based on where endometrial tissue occurs in the body, how far it has spread and how much tissue is in those areas” (x).

The first sentence has a source to back up the fact that four stages is the most common use of stages to describe endometriosis, and the second has a source to where that quote is from. Here’s another paragraph from the same post: 

According to the Mayo Clinic, other symptoms include painful sex, painful bowel movement or urination, long and heavy periods, nausea and/or vomiting, and infertility, which I’ll get into later (x).

Even though I don’t have a direct quote in that paragraph, I directly reference something said by the Mayo Clinic, so I have the source of where Mayo says that. 

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What Makes a Reputable Source? 

Now that we’ve talked about when you need a source, let’s address the next important thing: what makes a source reputable?

After all, just because you see something that agrees with your opinion or point of view doesn’t mean it’s correct! And if you are only looking for sources that prove your opinion, you’re going to miss correct information and sources that could be more valuable. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself about a source:

• Does this site have a reputation for honesty?
• Does this site have a reputation for being on one side or another of politics?
• Are there consequences if this site is wrong?
• Do they link to sources of their information? It doesn’t have to be for the information you’re using, just in general.
• Do they quote medical professionals?

What you’re trying to figure out with these questions is if they have a reason for sharing information that might not be accurate. If they do, then you shouldn’t use them. 

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Source Credibility Examples

Of course, let me share some examples of credible sources.

One example of a credible source is a medical study. Why? Because, to be published, that paper had to go through at least 2 peer reviews. That being said, don’t use a study that was published more than 10 years ago, as significantly more information could be found and research could be done in the meantime. 

Another example is a site for a foundation around a condition or that are from large health provider websites. This is because those sites are heavily based on their reputations. If Mayo Clinic wasn’t trusted any more, for example, they would lose their business. The same is true for something like the Arthritis Foundation, as if they couldn’t be trusted for information on arthritis, their entire premise could crumble. 

Another example, to a degree, is large organizations like the CDC, NHS, and NIH. The reason why I say to a degree is that they can be influenced by politics. For example, the head of the CDC is appointed by the president. But the reason why they can still be trusted is that they can’t share incorrect information. They can remove information, or make it difficult to find, but they can’t lie. (To a degree.)

Basically, you’re looking for places that have their integrity at the center of their existence. I mean, we would all be in trouble if the WHO started sharing incorrect information, right? 

I will say, though, that I try to avoid using individual practitioners’ websites as my sources because they don’t have the same potential issue if they’re lying or wrong that a larger organization does. 

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Can I Use a Journal Article?

Yes, absolutely! 

The tricky thing about journal articles is that many of them require subscriptions to read entire articles. And you really do need to read an entire article in order to be confident that it is says what you think it says. 

That being said, in some situations, what is available in the abstract and/or the results section might be enough. 

Let’s say that I’m writing a blog post about fibromyalgia, a chronic illness that isn’t understood well, and I’m looking for an explanation of if it is or isn’t an autoimmune disease. For that reason, I want to cite a recent study or journal article. This article was available online in 2024, so it is recent enough to be helpful.

According to the abstract on PubMed, “the available data do not provide a clear understanding of the pathogenesis,” meaning that it is unclear what the origin of the illness is, which means that it is unclear if the immune system is the origin of the illness (x). I don’t need to read the full article to know that.

That being said, this particular article is available to read for free. This article discusses the views of two different scientists, one who believes it is an autoimmune disease and one who believes it isn’t. In this case, I should only use information that comes from the abstract, introduction, or conclusion, unless I am explaining the views of both sides of the argument.

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Citations Basics

So: how do you cite your sources? 

The most important thing is citing them at all. For a blog, you don’t have to do a ton: supply a link, make it obvious that it is a link, and make it obvious what part of the post it is supporting. 

As I mentioned, my preference is to do “(x)” at the end of the sentence and link the x. Additionally, my links are a green while my text is black. While green is not an idea color for people with red-green color blindness, it still shows up as a different color than black for people with that form of color blindness.

I mostly put my citations at the end of the sentence and not the end of the post because I want it to be clear what part of the post it is supporting. These posts can get up to 5,000 words, and in general, my policy is to make things easy enough that a reader doesn’t have to go searching for things. This applies to social media links to sources to popular posts and more. 

One example of my citations is: “Rheumatologists are doctors who ‘who received further training in the diagnosis (detection), and treatment of diseases that affect the muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons’ (x).”

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If I have a sentence that requires 2 references, I’ll either link the words for each thing or I’ll do “(x, x)”. I only do that, though, if it’s pretty obvious which x belongs to which fact. 

I’ll also often name my source. Here are a few examples of how I do that:

• “What is especially interesting is that a 2016 study found that seronegative RA patients might in fact have higher inflammation levels than seropositive (x).”
• “The Mayo Clinic says, ‘Reactive arthritis develops in reaction to an infection in your body, often in your intestines, genitals or urinary tract’ (x).”
• “The Arthritis Foundation has a really, really good list of various forms of arthritis, and you can learn more about them on their website.”

The are two reasons why I specifically name my sources. One is that it shows readers that I’m trustworthy because I’m using official things like studies. But another is that, in many cases, I want to specifically name where I’m getting a quotation from. There are some cases where the sentence flows better without naming the source, but in many sentences, it flows better when I name the source.

Finally, as you can see, I always make it clear when I am directly quoting other people. The primary reason for that is, well, I’m not going to plagiarize. The Mayo Clinic has significantly more lawyers than I do and I’m not dealing with that. But, also, it’s against my values to try and pass off someone else’s words as mine. 

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I’m well aware that this might be overwhelming for many people, especially if it has been a while since you wrote something requiring research and sources. But trust me when I say that researching for blog posts and citing your sources gets easier with practice. And the best thing is that you don’t need to cite your sources for a blog like you do for a school paper; just make it clear where you get your facts from.

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