[googley]

DocJohn,
It would be great if all the news articles included the source from which the information is coming. I was very interested in more information about the article on PTSD and its effect on gene expression, but the source is not cited. If the information comes from a press release, or is going to come out in a journal article that information would be helpful to allow for followup. As in this article it seems to imply that they are assuming causation where they may only have correlation and so it would be nice to be able to see what exactly was said beyond the snippets included in the article. Thanks.

[googley]

Ok, really sad. Replying to my own post because no one else has. My post asks, "Why am I being ignored?"

PC represents itself as a credible source for psychiatric/psychological news but then does not cite in its own articles all the time. How are we supposed to take it seriously when we can not track back to its sources. I wouldn't have been allowed to write like this in my college papers, I expect better. While not all people reading PC will find this useful, there are those that will. I think this deserves attention. There is no way I can take the article I mentioned in the post above to my professor because he would laugh at me saying it is credible without having sources. And yet the topic is very applicable to our lab.

[Rohag]

Googley, I found this abstract online from The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). There's a link to a full .pdf, but you need to pay or have access through your institution.

"Epigenetic and immune function profiles associated with posttraumatic stress disorder"

[googley]

Rohag- Thanks so much for the link. I'm going to pass it on to my professor.

[Christina86]

Googley, I would advise you to use another website to find research articles, since this is typically used for those with mental illness and not for professionals looking for information.

Also, Google is your friend (I simply copied and pasted the title of the article and put it in Google and this is one of the top results that came up):

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...tem-genes.html

(and it cites the original journal reference/study)

For future discussions on academia and mental illness, I'd suggest the Student-Doctor Network: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=57

Under many (although not all) of the articles mentioned on the main page of PsychCentral under the article are one (or both) of these two headings: Related News Articles, and Related Clinical Articles. Those would be good resources as well, but peer-reviewed *journals* are the best place for academic research.

Hope that helps!

[Gabi925]

Sorry for daring. Why googley or anyone interested in an article on news is not asking the author of the article about what sources he/she used or thought about? I have seen that the name of the author and usually links are provided under articles on news on this site.

[googley]

There was the name of the author, but no email or way to contact the author. There were other topic related articles listed. I posted here hoping DocJohn (since it says that he approves all the articles) would supply the asked for information or the article itself would be updated. Apparently I should have PMed him. Sorry.

[deliquesce]

when i read a news article, i look for sources. not because i am doing academic research, but because i'm an interested member of the public. i'm a bit offended by this post - it sounds like you're suggesting people with mental illnesses shouldn't require the courtesy of having sources cited on news articles they read? i know i'm probably misconstruing, which is why i'm asking for clarification .
fwiw, even the tabloid papers here in australia give a journal reference (e.g., a paper published by a team of british scientists in Journal of Psychotherapy) because that's just common courtesy of giving credit where credit is due, and also increases the credibility of the article.
i would think it's great if we had minimum citations in all PC articles!!

Originally Posted by Christina86

Googley, I would advise you to use another website to find research articles, since this is typically used for those with mental illness and not for professionals looking for information.

[DocJohn]

This forum is primarily for technical and support issues with the community, generally not so much for the website in general. We ask people to use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every page to bring an immediate issue, feedback item, or question about the site, because it ensures it will be seen, read, and usually answered in a timely manner (if the inquiry requires an answer).

While I try and review questions posted here at least once or twice a week, this is definitely not the most timely way to get in touch with me. My PM box is also always open, which is a sure way I'll see your technical question about the site.

We do not generally provide research citations to our news articles because our site is a consumer-focused site. We take our cue from other e-health sites, like WebMD and EverydayHealth.com, as they are the industry leaders in consumer health sites.

Will this policy change in the future? We regularly review such policies and decisions every year, since making a change like this imparts additional costs on our end. We have to weigh those costs with the benefits of providing that additional information to the minority of readers who would actually have use/make use of it.

I definitely agree it would be nice to have. But we have to dole out our limited resources to what benefits the largest group of our readers or members. So we'll see if it's something we can add in the future.

Best,
DocJohn

PS - And to be clear, every Psych Central News article carries or should carry a "Source" tag and source attribution within the article itself (e.g., what journal the research was published in), where, with some Googling, a user can usually find the original citation or item in question. This has always been the case. The OP was asking about a formal research citation carried at the bottom of the article, which we occasionally do with some blog posts.