What Irks Me About Citing Journal Articles

A few days ago, I was reading a blog about 6 natural ways to boost testosterone levels. To be honest, I was interested to find out if there was any recent studies within the past two years that generated new insight into the topic. For the most part, I found the article to be a refreshing review. There really wasn't anything new for me because it covered what I was expecting.

My military experience, not formal education, has taught me the value of seeking out the source of information. After all, bad intelligence is a major contributor to mission failure and unnecessary death/injury to military personnel. Therefore, I wanted to learn from some of the sources cited in the blog. Thankfully, the author made it easy by providing hyperlinks(Kudos to technology!!)

When I clicked on one of the links, it lead me to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health website. YAY!!!! Some empirically researched information!! Then I read the source. It was ONLY the abstract. THE ABSTRACT!!!! Sorry for being annoyed, but the abstract doesn't tell the whole story. What the abstract really is, is a summary of the whole study. It's the cliff's notes version of the study. So why am I annoyed by this?

Citing a source in which the abstract is the only readily available source makes me question the validity of the article that I was reading in the first place. Granted, most journals require a pay per article type deal to access the whole study itself. However, I take this type of approach as a version of telephone, and we all know what happens to that bit of information 3-4 people down the line. Information is lost in translation. This is what irks me about citing journal articles.

How accurate is the information that I am reading, if what you wrote about is the summary of the summary of the original? Although reading and understanding a journal article is time consuming, it's worth the effort to ensure that whatever information is being disseminated be fully understood. Health/fitness bloggers need to take into account the well being of their audience and clients. By poorly understanding research, my fear is that an author intentionally or unintentionally misleads the audience.

I make this promise to my audience, whatever information I put out will always be fully understood. Before I share information, I'll understand every angle of new information and how it can potentially affect your life. Your health and well being weights heavily on my conscious so that you do not make the mistake of hurting yourself due to faulty information.