**TESTING** Editorial Process
OUR MISSION / WHAT WE DO
LIVESTRONG.com delivers trusted health, nutrition and fitness information. For all.
We strive to give you the tools and knowledge you need to live a happier, healthier life.
WHO WE ARE
We are a team of experienced health journalists and digital media mavens with varying quirks and interests — we’re split almost 50/50 when it comes to savory vs. sweet foods, for example — but we have one essential trait in common: a passion for helping our readers achieve their health goals.
Learn more about the LIVESTRONG.com team here.
WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE’RE GOING
(Section explaining the history of LIVESTRONG.com since launch and how it’s transformed over the years. This is where we could possibly include the counter tracking renovations, etc. like we talked about. Should end with a little about where we hope to be in the coming years. Something about older articles and clean-up process?)
LIVESTRONG.com licenses its name and is a separate entity from the Livestrong Foundation, which can be found at Livestrong.org; however, we are proud to share our name with an organization that has such an important mission. Following its launch in 2008, LIVESTRONG.com quickly became an internet fixture for health and wellness information, namely through search engines. If you ever Googled a health-related question in the 2000s, it’s extremely likely that a LIVESTRONG.com article showed up in the results.
The site continued to grow — both in terms of popularity and the number of articles it published — for over a decade, which resulted in an enormous library of articles across a wide range of topics. By November 2018, LIVESTRONG.com had nearly 100,000 articles on it.
In the past couple years, the LIVESTRONG.com team has worked hard to prioritize quality over quantity. We’ve been consolidating the enormous library into fewer but more comprehensive and authoritative articles in our core areas of expertise: nutrition, fitness and healthy living. As of July 2021, LIVESTRONG.com’s library has fewer than 27,000 articles, and we’re still working diligently to reduce that number and improve the quality of our content. It’s a time-consuming process, but we’re committed to ensuring that everything on LIVESTRONG.com cites only the most reliable resources, quotes credentialed experts, keeps changing subjects up to date and provides useful, actionable information that truly helps our readers.
OUR EDITORIAL PROCESS / HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO
The editorial team creates and updates hundreds of articles each month. From the early stages of brainstorming all the way until we hit “Publish,” our writers and editors have one question in mind: How can this article best serve readers? We strive to inform and encourage, never assume nor prescribe.
HOW WE DECIDE WHAT TO COVER
Because LIVESTRONG.com’s primary goal is to provide clear, authoritative, actionable information to readers, we approach our core topics from an evergreen perspective; we want to ensure our articles always serve you as best as possible.
The LS team stays up-to-date on everything related to our three verticals: nutrition, fitness and health. Instead of covering breaking news, we offer useful, credible and actionable information regarding what’s happening in the world and explain the evidence (or lack thereof) behind popular and budding trends within our verticals.
Each article is responsibly researched and written, then edited to the highest journalistic standards before being published.
EXPLANATION OF DIFFERENT PROCESSES:
Freelancer pitches
Our freelancers have the opportunity to pitch stories via AirTable. We only approve a select number of pitches from freelancers, but we welcome fresh perspectives.
Daily pitches
* Timely pitches are relevant to what’s currently going on in the world or are based on themes doing well traffic-wise.
* Evergreen pitches, DEI, passion projects?
* Evergreen stories require more reporting than timely stories do and are usually a deep-dive into a specific subject. They’re inspired by credible research, experiences, trends, social media, among others.
* Feedback from readers! Include email address here too
HOW WE CHOOSE AND USE SOURCES
We have strict guidelines for the kind of research we cite in our articles: You will rarely find studies or papers cited on LIVESTRONG.com that are outdated (i.e. published prior to 2012) or preliminary (i.e. conducted on animals or in petri dishes rather than in humans, presented at a conference rather than published in a respected, peer-reviewed journal or carried out on only a handful of very specific people) — and when you do, we will always explain the reasoning behind making an exception for that research to be included in an article.
We do not cite research that is published in predatory or questionable journals, shows clear signs of conflict of interest or is untrustworthy or problematic in any other way.
When you see an icon at the top of an article that says “Fact Checked,” that means the story only uses approved sources that meet our strict guidelines. (You may also see “Expert Reviewed” — more on that in the next section.)
We also have high standards when it comes to the experts we interview for our articles: They must be credentialed in the field they are speaking about. For nutrition-focused content, for example, we speak with registered dietitians, who have earned a degree in the field and passed a national exam (as opposed to nutritionists, who may not hold any degrees or credentials).
All of that said, LIVESTRONG.com is a large website and we are human: We make mistakes. If you ever see questionable research or expert sources in one of our articles, please let us know!
HOW EXPERT REVIEWING WORKS
We ask a team of independent health experts to vet our articles to ensure they are accurate and up-to-date.
These doctors, nurses, registered dietitians, physical therapists, certified personal trainers and other credentialed professionals review articles related to their fields of expertise. They confirm the articles are thorough and cite the strongest sources and the latest in evidence-based research.
Our experts share any suggestions for improvements with our editorial team, and we address and implement those recommendations before publishing. An article that has been reviewed by an expert displays the expert’s name in the byline. Articles covering the most complicated health and science topics with the most direct effect on the lives of our readers take highest priority for our expert reviewers.
We recruit our diverse team of reviewers from top medical institutions and established health organizations. If you’re interested in reviewing articles for accuracy, we’d love to hear from you.
Learn more about our experts.
HOW WE CHOOSE WRITERS
We carefully assess contributing writers and editors for subject matter expertise, train them on LIVESTRONG.com best practices and provide regular feedback.
OUR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSIVITY PLEDGE
The LIVESTRONG.com team acknowledges, respects and appreciates everyone for who they are.
We stand strong against racism and discrimination of any kind, including biases based on religion, culture, sex, gender, sexual orientation, income, age, body type, ability or any other aspect of identity.
Discrimination is a public health issue.
In June 2020, the unjust death of George Floyd served as a painful reminder of that truth. We responded with LIVESTRONG.com’s first public statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
We also committed to making LIVESTRONG.com a better, more inclusive site. With more than 7 million monthly visitors to LIVESTRONG.com and 1.8 million social media followers, we believe we have a platform from which to help spark positive, lasting change in the health publishing industry and the country at large.
Our goal is to work toward achieving equity for excluded and marginalized groups in our audience through fitness, health and nutrition content that aims to:
Make Health a Shared Value: We provide access to useful, critical health information that is specific to excluded and marginalized groups.
Create More Equitable Communities: We foster safe spaces within our community in which excluded and marginalized groups can get equitable value and opportunities.
A vital step in this process has been, and continues to be, dismantling our own biases and educating ourselves while exploring our own unique identities and experiences. To do so, we’ve implemented several changes and committed to the following sitewide initiatives:
DEI Q&As: Each month, we host an internal Q&A event in which experts from marginalized communities are invited and paid to share their work and experiences with our team. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch at [email protected].
Continuing Education: As part of the Leaf Group family of brands, we are participating in Eskalera DEI employee empowerment coursework to better understand and support our teams and communities.
Increasing Representation: Implementing an optional, confidential self-identification process to allow our contributors to tell us their race, ethnicity and gender to help us ensure our contributor base is representative of all members of our audience.
Changing Language: Updating our style guide and continuing to evolve our existing content library to ensure all language is consistent with our brand’s values of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Generating Cross-Sector Collaboration: We work with and highlight diverse businesses and/or individuals across food, fitness and health. By doing so, we help support valuable community players while empowering readers and acknowledging their experiences.
OUR COMMUNITY
Our Challenge Facebook Group
The most important part of what we do is interacting with our readers. And one of the ways we get to know them the best is through our challenge Facebook group. Each month, we host fitness challenges — the plank challenge, push-up challenge, walking challenge — and our community of more than 49,000 participants joins us.
But the group is so much more than perfecting exercise form or sculpting six-pack abs: It’s a group of people dedicated to improving their own fitness and wellbeing in the long-term (no quick fixes here!) while supporting their fellow group members. It’s truly one of the most positive and uplifting places on the Internet!
Our MyPlate App
One of our goals is to provide people with the tools they need to live their healthiest lives. MyPlate is one of those tools. Users can track their daily food and water intake, log their workouts and other physical activity, view a breakdown of their macro and micronutrients and make adjustments based on their goals — whether that’s to lose weight, gain muscle or simply eat healthier.
Also on the app are quick 5- to 10-minute workouts, an 8-week meal plan (available in vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and omnivore) and a vibrant community message board where users can ask questions, get support and find camaraderie along their health journeys.
TALK TO US
At LIVESTRONG.com, we're all about helping you live stronger, healthier and happier.
So if you have a question, comment or concern about the site’s articles or editorial process, we want to hear it! Drop us a line at [email protected].
That said, we’re better with words than with tech issues. If you’re having trouble with the site functionality, please go to https://www.livestrong.com/contact-us/ or email our tech team directly at [email protected].