Welcome!

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Hello, Robschmidt, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions, especially your edits to Hops. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

You may also want to take the Wikipedia Adventure, an interactive tour that will help you learn the basics of editing Wikipedia. You can visit The Teahouse to ask questions or seek help.

Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask for help on your talk page, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! Zefr (talk) 22:54, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply

Note: Type of source that should not be used: https://www.kaliana.com/pages/coffee-chocolate-confidence rds 15:07, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Hops

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Hi Rob -- my issues with your references are 1) PMID 9757514 is an old, comparative medicine study, a long way from meeting WP:MEDRS where systematic reviews, meta-analyses and national or international scientific organizations and/or regulatory bodies (like FDA, National Academy of Medicine or EFSA) would have to discuss the findings as scientifically valid in a published review on the topic; and 2) PMID 22849837 is a study on quail, i.e., a lab study, so is WP:PRIMARY and a long way from meeting WP:MEDRS. Wikipedia presents scientifically validated facts rather than ongoing research results on indiscriminate findings per WP:IINFO. Thanks for asking; we can discuss this further here on your page. I'll add a welcome message for you with some useful links on using Wikipedia --Zefr (talk) 22:53, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply

User:Zefr Thank you Zefr! That actually makes a lot of sense the way that you put it. I understand now. Regarding WP:MEDRS, is the reason my edits need one of those sources due to the content I am contributing? Meaning, if I wasn't making any statements about health/medicine/studies it would be okay to use a different source? For example, if I was talking about common tea blends using hops, a WP:PRIMARY would be acceptable?

Also, do I need to tag you using User:Zefr or is it common practice to watch a page you're contributing to so pinging you is not necessary?

I hope that makes sense! Thank you again. rds (talk) 23:01, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply

Watching your page, so you don't have to ping. Thanks. Regarding non-medical statements and sources, you still need a reliable secondary source to support it. If sleeping on hops-filled pillows was an important entry, could you produce a WP:SECONDARY source for it?
From Rob: Would you mind responding to my questions here?
1. Do you have any tips for identifying reliable/proven sources vs ones that are not? Choosing sources
2. Any sites that are commonly used as sources but do not contain credible information? Avoid predatory sources and disciplines that do not usually publish in the scientific peer-reviewed literature, such as naturopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, traditional medicine
3. Any sites that you recommend searching? When you search Pubmed, use systematic reviews as much as possible
It may seem tedious, but if you read the sections of WP:MEDRS, there will be answers to these questions concerning medical/clinical/biological topics and sources that eventually affect how the typical encyclopedia user (think of a high school student) would seek information that is best when basic and supported by the highest-quality science. --Zefr (talk) 23:08, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for all of that. I have a lot of reading to do :D

As for the hops filled pillows (in case your question wasn't rhetorical), I was actually just tying what was already there into what I was adding. I'm not familiar with that old wive's tale.

I'll post here with any further questions I have, still determined to make a positive contribution to the Hops page haha.

I truly appreciate your assistance, I'll make sure to pay it forward later on. rds (talk) 23:17, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply

Ok, good luck! --Zefr (talk) 23:23, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply