Our Process
Why we built the Red Pen Reviews method
Nutrition books often make bold claims that conflict with other nutrition books, and it can be hard to tell what’s true. Until now, readers haven’t had a reliable way to evaluate the claims in these books. That’s why we created the Red Pen Reviews method: a structured, expert review method that’s designed to score nutrition books fairly, accurately, and consistently
Our goals
- Promote high-quality information
- Create consistent review standards
- Hold authors accountable
- Improve public health
REd pen review process
How We Review Books
Red Pen Reviews uses a unique, structured review method to assess the information quality of nutrition books. Our method breaks each review into three core categories that are scored using a rigorous and consistent process.
Scientific Accuracy
We check whether three key claims in the book are supported by high-quality evidence.
Reference Accuracy
We randomly choose ten references and check whether they say what the book claims.
Healthfulness
We check whether the book’s advice does what it claims, improves general health, and meets nutritional needs.
How Scoring Works
Each book is reviewed by an expert who uses the Red Pen Reviews method to score it across three categories: Scientific Accuracy, Reference Accuracy, and Healthfulness. These three category scores are averaged into an overall score. We also rate how easy the book’s advice is to follow. The draft review is then reviewed by a second expert to increase accuracy and clarity. We publish the full scoring rubric our reviewers use and we always provide clear, detailed explanations of how we arrived at each score—giving you full transparency so you can be the final judge of what to believe