literacy research articles

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• Published: 15 March 2022

A review of academic literacy research development: from 2002 to 2019

• Dongying Li   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6835-5129 1  

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education volume  7 , Article number:  5 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Academic literacy as an embodiment of higher-order language and thinking skills within the academic community bears huge significance for language socialization, resource distribution and even power disposition within the larger sociocultural context. However, although the notion of academic literacy has been initiated for more than twenty years, there still lacks a clear definition and operationalization of the construct. The study conducted a systematic review of academic literacy research based on 94 systematically selected research papers on academic literacy from 2002 to 2019 from multiple databases. These papers were then coded respectively in terms of their research methods, types (interventionistic or descriptive), settings and research focus. Findings demonstrate (1) the multidimensionality of academic literacy construct; (2) a growing number of mixed methods interventionistic studies in recent years; and (3) a gradual expansion of academic literacy research in ESL and EFL settings. These findings can inform the design and implementation of future academic literacy research and practices.

Introduction

Academic literacy as an embodiment of higher order thinking and learning not only serves as a prerequisite for knowledge production and communication within the disciplines but also bears huge significance for individual language and cognitive development (Flowerdew, 2013 ; Moje, 2015 ). Recent researches on academic literacy gradually moved from regarding literacy as discrete, transferrable skills to literacy as a social practice, closely associated with disciplinary epistemology and identity (Gee, 2015 ). The view of literacy learning as both a textual and contextual practice is largely driven by the changing educational goal under the development of twenty-first century knowledge economy, which requires learners to be active co-constructors of knowledge rather than passive recipients (Gebhard, 2004 ). Academic literacy development in this sense is considered as a powerful tool for knowledge generation, communication and transformation.

However, up-till-now, there still seems to lack a clear definition and operationalization of the academic literacy construct that can guide effective pedagogy (Wingate, 2018 ). This can possibly lead to a peril of regarding academic literacy as an umbrella term, with few specifications on the potential of the construct to afford actual teaching and learning practices. In this sense, a systematic review in terms of how the construct was defined, operationalized and approached in actual research settings can embody huge potential in bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Based on these concerns, the study conducts a critical review of academic literacy research over the past twenty years in terms of the construct of the academic literacy, their methods, approaches, settings and keywords. A mixed methods approach is adopted to combine qualitative coding with quantitative analysis to investigate diachronic changes. Results of the study can enrich the understandings of the construct of academic literacy and its relations to actual pedagogical practices while shedding light on future directions of research.

Literature review

Academic literacy as a set of literacy skills specialized for content learning is closely associated with individual higher order thinking and advanced language skill development (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008 ). Recent researches suggest that the development of the advanced literacy skills can only be achieved via students’ active engagement in authentic and purposeful disciplinary learning activities, imbued with meaning, value and emotions (Moje et al., 2008 ). Therefore, contrary to the ‘autonomous model’ of literacy development which views literacy as a set of discrete, transferrable reading and writing skills, academic literacy development is viewed as participation, socialization and transformation achieved via individual’s expanding involvement in authentic and meaningful disciplinary learning inquiries (Duff, 2010 ; Russell, 2009 ). Academic literacy development in this sense is viewed as a powerful mediation for individual socialization into the academic community, which is in turn closely related to issues of power disposition, resource distribution and social justice (Broom, 2004 ). In this sense, academic literacy development is by no means only a cognitive issue but situated social and cultural practices widely shaped by power, structure and ideology (Lillis & Scott, 2007 ; Wenger, 1998 ).

The view of literacy learning as a social practice is typically reflected in genre and the ‘academic literacies’ model. Genre, as a series of typified, recurring social actions serves as a powerful semiotic tool for individuals to act together meaningfully and purposefully (Fang & Coatoam, 2013 ). Academic literacy development in this sense is viewed as individual’s gradual appropriation of the shared cultural values and communicative repertoires within the disciplines. These routinized practices of knowing, doing and being not only serve to guarantee the hidden quality of disciplinary knowledge production but also entail a frame of action for academic community functioning (Fisher, 2019 ; Wenger, 1998 ). Therefore, academic literacy development empowers individual thinking and learning in pursuit of effective community practices.

Complementary to the genre approach, the ‘academic literacies’ model “views student writing and learning as issues at the level of epistemology and identities rather than skill or socialization” from the lens of critical literacy, power and ideology (Lea & Street, 1998 , p. 159). Drawing from ‘New Literacies’, the ‘academic literacies’ model approaches literacy development within the power of social discourse with the hope to open up possibilities for innovations and change (Lea & Street, 2006 ). Academic literacy development in this sense is regarded as a powerful tool for access, communication and identification within the academic community, and is therefore closely associated with issues of social justice and equality (Gee, 2015 ).

The notion of genre and ‘academic literacies’ share multiple resemblances with English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which according to Charles ( 2013 , p. 137) ‘is concerned with researching and teaching the English needed by those who use the language to perform academic tasks’. As can be seen, both approaches regard literacy learning as highly purposeful and contextual, driven by the practical need to ‘foregrounding the tacit nature of academic conventions’ (Lillis & Tuck, 2016 , p. 36). However, while EAP is more text-driven, ‘academic literacies’ are more practice-oriented (Lillis & Tuck, 2016 ). That is rather than focusing on the ‘normative’ descriptions of the academic discourse, the ‘academic literacies’ model lays more emphasis on learner agency, personal experiences and sociocultural diversity, regarded as a valuable source for individual learning and the transformation of community practices (Lillis & Tuck, 2016 ). This view of literacy learning as meaningful social participation and transformation is now gradually adopted in the approach of critical EAP (Charles, 2013 ).

In sum, all these approaches regard academic literacy development as multi-dimensional, encompassing both linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural practices (Cumming, 2013 ). However, up-till-now, there still seems to lack a clear definition and operationalization of the academic literacy construct that can guide concrete pedagogies. Short and Fitzsimmons ( 2007 , p. 2) provided a tentative definition of academic literacy from the following aspects:

Includes reading, writing, and oral discourse for school Varies from subject to subject Requires knowledge of multiple genres of text, purposes for text use, and text media Is influenced by students’ literacies in contexts outside of school Is influenced by students’ personal, social, and cultural experiences.

This definition has specified the main features of academic literacy as both a cognitive and sociocultural construct; however, more elaborations may be needed to further operationalize the construct in real educational and research settings. Drawing from this, Allison and Harklau ( 2010 ) and Fang ( 2012 ) specified three general approaches to academic literacy research, namely: the language, cognitive (disciplinary) and the sociocultural approach, which will be further elaborated in the following.

The language-based approach is mainly text-driven and lays special emphasis on the acquisition of language structures, skills and functions characteristic of content learning (Allison & Harklau, 2010 , p. 134; Uccelli et al., 2014 ), and highlights explicit instruction on academic language features and discourse structures (Hyland, 2008 ). This notion is widely influenced by Systemic Functional Linguistics which specifies the intricate connections between text and context, or linguistic choices and text meaning-making potential under specific communicative intentions and purposes (Halliday, 2000 ). This approach often highlights explicit consciousness-raising activities in text deconstruction as embodied in the genre pedagogy, facilitated by corpus-linguistic research tools to unveil structures and patterns of academic language use (Charles, 2013 ).

One typical example is data driven learning (DDL) or ‘any use of a language corpus by second or foreign language learners’ (Anthony, 2017 , p. 163). This approach encourages ‘inductive, self-directed’ language learning under the guidance of the teacher to examine and explore language use in real academic settings. These inquiry-based learning processes not only make language learning meaningful and purposeful but also help form more strategic and autonomous learners (Anthony, 2017 ).

In sum, the language approach intends to unveil the linguistic and rhetorical structure of academic discourse to make it accessible and available for reflection. However, academic literacy development entails more than the acquisition of academic language skills but also the use of academic language as tool for content learning and scientific reasoning (Bailey et al., 2007 ), which is closely connected to individual cognitive development, knowledge construction and communication within the disciplines (Fang, 2012 ).

Therefore, the cognitive or disciplinary-based approach views academic literacy development as higher order thinking and learning in academic socialization in pursuit of deep, contextualized meaning (Granville & Dison, 2005 ). This notion highlights the cognitive functions of academic literacy as deeply related to disciplinary epistemologies and identities, widely shaped by disciplinary-specific ways of knowing, doing and thinking (Moje, 2015 ). Just as mentioned by Shanahan ( 2012 , p. 70), ‘approaching a text with a particular point of view affects how individuals read and learn from texts’, academic literacy development is an integrated language and cognitive endeavor.

One typical example in this approach is the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) initiated by Chamot and O’Malley ( 1987 ), proposing the development of a curriculum that integrates mainstream content subject learning, academic language development and learning strategy instruction. This approach embeds language learning within an authentic, purposeful content learning environment, facilitated by strategy training. Another example is the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP model) developed by Echevarría et al. ( 2013 ). Sheltered instruction, according to Short et al. ( 2011 , p. 364) refers to ‘a subject class such as mathematics, science, or history taught through English wherein many or all of the students are second language learners’. This approach integrates language and content learning and highlights language learning for subject matter learning purposes (Allison & Harklau, 2010 ). To make it more specifically, the SIOP model promotes the use of instructional scaffolding to make content comprehensible while advancing students’ skills in a new language (Echevarría et al., 2013 , p. 18). Over the decade, this notion integrating language and cognitive development within the disciplines has gradually gained its prominence in bilingual and multilingual education (Goldenberg, 2010 ).

Complementary to the language and cognitive approach, the sociocultural approach contends literacy learning as a social issue, widely shaped by power, structure and ideology (Gee, 2015 ; Lea & Street, 2006 ). This approach highlights the role of learner agency and identity in transforming individual/community learning practices (Lillis & Scott, 2007 ). Academic literacy in this sense is viewed as a sociocultural construct imbued with meaning, value and emotions as a gateway for social access, power distribution and meaning reconstruction (Moje et al., 2008 ).

However, despite the various approaches to academic literacy teaching and learning, up-till-now, there still seems to be a paucity of research that can integrate these dimensions into effective intervention and research practices. Current researches on academic literacy development either take an interventionistic or descriptive approach. The former usually takes place within a concrete educational setting under the intention to uncover effective community teaching and learning practices (Engestrom, 1999 ). The later, on the contrary, often takes a more naturalistic or ethnographic approach with the hope to provide an in-depth account of individual/community learning practices (Lillis & Scott, 2007 ). These descriptions are often aligned to larger sociocultural contexts and the transformative role of learner agency in collective, object-oriented activities (Engeström, 1987 ; Wenger, 1998 ).

These different approaches to academic literacy development are influenced by the varying epistemological stances of the researcher and specific research purposes. However, all these approaches have pointed to a common conception of academic literacy as a multidimensional construct, widely shaped by the sociocultural and historical contexts. This complex and dynamic nature of literacy learning not only enables the constant innovation and expansion of academic literacy construct but also opens up the possibilities to challenge the preconceived notions of relevant research and pedagogical practices.

Based on these concerns, the study intends to conduct a critical review of the twenty years’ development of academic literacy research in terms of their definition of the academic literacy construct, research approaches, methodologies, settings and keywords with the hope to uncover possible developmental trends in interaction. Critical reflections are drawn from this systematic review to shed light on possible future research directions.

Through this review, we intended the address the following three research questions:

What is the construct of academic literacy in different approaches of academic literacy research?

What are the possible patterns of change in term of academic literacy research methods, approaches and settings over the past twenty years?

What are the main focuses of research within each approach of academic literacy development?

Methodology

The study adopts mixed methods to provide a systematic review of academic literacy research over the past twenty years. The rationale for choosing a mixed method is to integrate qualitative text analysis on the features of academic literacy research with quantitative corpus analysis applied on the initial coding results to unveil possible developmental trends.

Inclusion criteria

To locate academic literacy studies over the past twenty years, the researcher conducted a keyword search of ‘academic literacy’ within a wide range of databases within the realm of linguistic and education. For quality control, only peer-reviewed articles from the Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science) were selected. This initial selection criteria yielded 127 papers containing a keyword of ‘academic literacy’ from a range of high-quality journals in linguistics and education from a series of databases, including: Social Science Premium Collection, ERIC (U.S. Dept. of Education), ERIC (ProQuest), Taylor & Francis Online—Journals, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Informa—Taylor & Francis (CrossRef), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science), ScienceDirect Journals (Elsevier), ScienceDirect (Elsevier B.V.), Elsevier (CrossRef), ProQuest Education Journals, Sage Journals (Sage Publications), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, JSTOR Archival Journals, Wiley Online Library etc. Among these results, papers from Journal of Second Language Writing, Language and Education, English for Specific Purposes, Teaching in Higher Education, Journal of English for Academic Purposes and Higher Education Research & Development are among the most frequent.

Based on these initial results, the study conducted a second-round detailed sample selection. The researcher manually excluded the irrelevant papers which are either review articles, papers written in languages other than English or not directly related to literacy learning in educational settings. After the second round of data selection, a final database of 94 high-quality papers on academic literacy research within the time span between 2002 and 2019 were generated. However, considering the time of observation in this study, only researches conducted before October 2019 were included, which leads to a slight decrease in the total number of researches accounted in that year.

Coding procedure

Coding of the study was conducted from multiple perspectives. Firstly, the study specified three different approaches to academic literacy study based on their different understandings and conceptualizations of the construct (Allison & Harklau, 2010 ). Based on this initial classification, the study then conducted a new round of coding on the definitions of academic literacy, research methods, settings within each approach to look for possible interactions. Finally, a quantitative keywords frequency analysis was conducted in respective approaches to reveal the possible similarities and differences in their research focus. Specific coding criteria are specified as the following.

Firstly, drawing from Allison and Harklau ( 2010 ), the study classified all the researches in the database into three broad categories: language, disciplinary and sociocultural. While the language approach mainly focuses on the development of general or disciplinary-specific academic language features (Hyland, 2008 ), the disciplinary approach views academic literacy development as deeply embedded in the inquiry of disciplinary-specific values, cultures and epistemologies and can only be achieved via individual’s active engagement in disciplinary learning and inquiry practices (Moje, 2015 ). The sociocultural approach, largely influenced by the ‘academic literacies’ model (Lea & Street, 1998 ) contends that academic literacy development entails more than individual socialization into the academic community but is also closely related to issues as power, identity and epistemology (Gee, 2015 ; Lillis, 2008 ).

Based on this initial coding, the study then identified the research methods in all studies within each approach as either quantitative, qualitative or mixed method. Drawing from Creswell ( 2014 ), quantitative research is defined as ‘an approach for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables’ (p. 3) and is often quantified or numbered using specific statistical procedures. The use of this approach in academic literacy studies are often closely associated with corpus-driven text analysis, developmental studies, academic language assessment or large-scale intervention studies. This approach is particularly useful in unveiling the possible developmental effects of effective interventions but may fall short to account for the process of development which are often highly idiosyncratic and contextual. The use of qualitative methods can to some extent address this concern, as they often intend to explore deep contextualized meanings that individuals or groups ascribe to a social problem (Creswell, 2014 ). Drawing from the notion of literacy learning as a social practice, qualitative methods and especially linguistic ethnographies are highly encouraged in early academic literacy studies for their potential to provide detailed descriptions of a phenomenon through prolonged engagement (Lillis, 2008 ). In complementary, the use of mixed methods integrates both quantitative and qualitative data to ‘provide a more complete understanding of a research problem than either approach alone’ (Creswell, 2014 , p. 3). This approach embodies huge potentialities in academic literacy research as it can align teaching and learning processes with possible developmental outcomes, which not only preserves the contextualized and practice-oriented nature of academic literacy research but also makes their results generalizable.

Secondly, the study classified all the researches into two types: interventionistic and descriptive. The former entails an intentional pedagogical intervention with an aim to improve individual and community learning practices. The latter, however, tends to adopt a more naturalistic approach under an intention to unveil the complex and dynamic interactions between academic literacy development and the wider sociocultural context. These two approaches complement each other in academic literacy researches in real educational settings, serving distinct purposes.

Thirdly, for a closer inspection of the context of research, the study specifies three general research settings: English as a native language (ENL), English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) (Kirkpatrick, 2007 ). According to Kirkpatrick ( 2007 , p. 27), ‘ENL is spoken in countries where English is the primary language of the great majority of the population’ where ‘English is spoken and used as a native language’. ESL in contrast, ‘is spoken in countries where English is an important and usually official language, but not the main language of the country’ (Kirkpatrick, 2007 , p. 27). These are also countries that are previously colonized by the English-speaking countries, often with a diverse linguistic landscape and complicated language policies (Broom, 2004 ). Therefore, language choices in these countries are often closely connected to issues as power, identity and justice. Academic literacy development in this respect serves both to guarantee social resource distribution and to empower individuals to change. Finally, ‘EFL occurs in countries where English is not actually used or spoken very much in the normal course of daily life’ (Kirkpatrick, 2007 , p. 27). Within these settings, for example in China, English language education used to serve only for its own purposes (Wen, 2019 ). However, dramatic changes have been going on these days in pursuit of a language-content integrated curriculum to achieve advanced literacy and cognitive skills development. (Zhang & Li, 2019 ; Zhang & Sun, 2014 ).

Finally, the study conducted detailed keywords analysis in terms of their frequency within each approach (language, disciplinary and sociocultural). Based on these, the researcher then merged the raw frequencies of similar constructs for example: testing and assessment, teaching and pedagogy to get a better representation of the results. This analysis reveals the focus of research within each approach and helps promote further operationalization of the academic literacy construct.

The coding was conducted by two independent coders, with coder one in charge of the coding of all data, and coder two responsible for 30% of the coding of the total data. Coder one, also the main researcher trained coder two in terms of the coding procedures in detail with ample practices until the threshold of intercoder reliability was reached. Coder two then coded the remaining 30% of the data independently with an interrater reliability of over 80%. The coding was done on an excel worksheet which makes data access and retrieval readily available. The statistical software R was used for keywords frequency analysis.

Data analyses in the study mainly involve three parts: (1) specifying the construct and operationalization of the academic literacy research; (2) investigating the dynamic interactions among research approaches, methods and settings; (3) identifying the focus of research within each approach through keywords analysis. The following parts deal with these questions respectively.

Definition and operationalization of the academic literacy construct

The study extracted all the explicit definitions of academic literacy within each approach (language, disciplinary and sociocultural) and conducted detailed thematic analysis recategorizing them into different themes (see Table 1 ).

Table 1 shows that the definitions of academic literacy vary with respect to the different conceptualizations and epistemologies of academic literacy development within each approach. For instance, the language-based approach mainly defines academic literacy from two aspects: (1) language use in academic settings; and (2) language competence required for academic study (Baumann & Graves, 2010 ; Sebolai, 2016 ). The former takes a relatively narrow view of academic literacy development as learners’ gradual appropriation of the linguistic and rhetorical features of the academic discourse (Schleppegrell, 2013 ; Uccelli et al., 2014 ). The latter in complementary specifies academic literacy development for content learning purposes, entailing the kind of competence students need to possess for academic study (Kabelo & Sebolai, 2016 ). Academic language learning in this sense does not serve for its own sake but is considered as a tool for content learning and cognitive development. Overall, the language-based approach to academic literacy development lays much emphasis on the acquisition of academic language features which serves as a prerequisite for learners to examine and explore the meaning-making potential of the academic language (Schleppegrell, 2013 ).

The disciplinary-based approach on the other hand focuses on an integrated development of advanced language and cognitive skills within the disciplines, with language learning closely intertwined with the appropriation of disciplinary-specific values, cultures and practices. In this sense, academic literacy development is viewed as a dynamic process of higher-order language socialization in pursuit of deep, collaborative contextual meaning (Lea & Street, 2006 ). During this process, academic literacy development goes hand in hand with cognitive development and knowledge production within the disciplines, along with learners’ gradually expanding involvement with the disciplinary-specific ways of doing knowing and thinking (Granville & Dison, 2005 ). Other researches within this approach regard academic literacy development as more than language socialization but widely shaped and constrained by issues of power, epistemology and identity (Lea & Street, 1998 ). This definition is also widely used in the sociocultural approach, regarding academic literacy development as a sociocultural enterprise, widely related to the identification, reification and transformation of the social practices (Wenger, 1998 ).

The sociocultural approach also known as the ‘academic literacies’ model views literacy learning at the level of power struggle, structure reconstruction and social justice (Gee, 2015 ). Academic literacy development in this sense is not only a shared repertoire for individual access to social communities but also a tool for emancipation and transformation, which is object-oriented, practice-driven and value-laden (Lillis & Scott, 2007 ).

Academic literacy research approaches, methods and settings

The study also analyzed changes in the approaches, methods and settings of academic literacy research over the past twenty years. Table 2 and Fig.  1 in the following present the number of quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies within the language-based, disciplinary-based and sociocultural approach respectively.

Methods approach interaction in academic literacy studies

Table 2 and Fig.  1 show that the research methods chosen tend to vary with the approaches. To begin with, the number of qualitative studies generally surpassed the quantitative ones in both the disciplinary and the sociocultural approach, especially in the latter where qualitative studies dominated. However, their numbers tended to decrease in the past five years giving way to the rising mixed method researches. This was particularly evident in the growing number of mixed-methods language and disciplinary studies observed after 2015, which can also be an indication of the emergence of more robust designs in relevant educational researches. Finally, while the sociocultural approach was mainly featured by qualitative research, research methods in the language approach were more evenly distributed, which can possibly be accounted by its relatively longer research tradition and more well-established research practices.

In addition, the study also specified changes in the number of descriptive and intervention studies each year (see Table 2 , Fig.  2 ). Results showed that: (1) generally there were more qualitative researches in both the intervention and descriptive approach compared to the quantitative ones, although their numbers decreased in the past five years, especially in terms of the number of qualitative intervention studies; (2) a growing number of mixed-methods intervention studies were perceived in recent years. The findings echoed Scammacca et al.’s ( 2016 ) a century progress of reading intervention studies, indicating the emergence of more ‘standard, structured and standardized group interventions’ with ‘more robust design’ compared to the previous ‘individualized intervention case studies’ (p. 780). This developmental trend can indicate a possible methodological shift towards more large-scale intervention studies in the future based on recursive and reflective pedagogical practices. For more detailed descriptions of the methods-approach interaction, the study further investigated changes in the number of descriptive and intervention studies within each approach (see Table 3 , Fig.  3 ).

Diachronic changes in academic literacy research methods

Methods-approach interaction in academic literacy studies

Table 3 suggests that while the sociocultural approach tended to be more descriptive, the language and disciplinary approaches were more likely to interventionist. Another developmental trend was a dramatic decrease in descriptive language studies after 2015, giving way to an evident increase in intervention studies. This phenomenon entails an intricate connection among academic literacy development, education and pedagogy, indicating that language socialization does not come naturally, and well-designed, explicit pedagogical interventions are often in need.

Furthermore, the study tracked diachronic changes in the settings of academic literacy research. Results show that among the 94 selected academic literacy researches, 81 take place in a higher education context, accounting for about 86% of the total. Only 10 out of the 13 remaining researches take place in secondary school settings and 3 in elementary school settings. These results suggest that up-till-now, discussions on academic literacy development are mainly restricted to higher education settings, closely linked to the learning of advanced language and thinking skills. However, future researches may also need to attend to academic literacy development in secondary or primary school settings, especially in face of the growing disciplinary learning demands for adolescents (Dyhaylongsod et al., 2015 ).

Finally, the study recorded the specific countries where academic literacy studies take place, among which South Africa stands as the highest with 22 studies amounting to 20.95% of the total, followed by the United States (17.14%), United Kingdom (12.38%), Australia (11.43%) and China (9.64%). These results suggest that academic literacy research most often take place in ENL or ESL settings with relatively long traditions of literacy teaching and learning, and prominent demands for academic literacy development within subject areas. In the meantime, the study attributes the high number of academic literacy research in the South African context to its complex linguistic realities and historical legacies, where literacy development is closely associated with issues of power, identity and equality (Broom, 2004 ; Lea & Street, 2006 ). Based on this, the study specified the approaches of academic literacy research within the ENL, ESL and EFL settings respectively (see Table 4 , Fig.  4 ).

Academic literacy research settings

Table 4 shows that while the ENL settings dominated most of the academic literacy researches, relevant studies in ESL and EFL settings gradually increased in recent years, indicating an expanding influence of the academic literacy construct in different educational settings. Another pattern was the observation of more balanced research approaches or more evenly distributed language, disciplinary and sociocultural researches in all three settings. This phenomenon suggests that there seems to be an increasing flexibility in academic literacy research in recent years under the intention to address specific contextual issues. All these developmental trends reinforce the notion of academic literacy as a multi-dimensional construct (Cumming, 2013 ).

Focus of academic literacy research

To investigate the focus of academic literacy research within each approach, the study conducted detailed keywords analysis in all studies (see Fig.  5 ). Results show that academic literacy development is a situated educational practice, closely linked to issues as content learning, teacher education, assessment and pedagogy. Another feature that stands out is the frequent appearance of ‘writing’ and its related practices, such as: academic writing, student writing etc. This phenomenon suggests that compared to reading, writing seems to share a greater emphasis in academic literacy research. This can possibly be accounted by the intricate connections among writing, language and content learning and the gradual shift of focus from learning to write to writing to learn in higher education settings (Prain & Hand, 2016 ).

Keywords analysis of academic literacy research

From Fig.  5 , it can be seen that different approaches share common and distinct research focuses. For instance, the disciplinary approach is mainly featured by content learning and the development of subject-matter knowledge and skills, with a close relation to situated educational practices as genre and pedagogy, disciplinary-specific teaching and learning, reading interventions and teacher education. The language approach on the other hand tends to be more text-oriented, focusing on the development of advanced cognitive and academic language skills, widely influenced by the notions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and genre pedagogy. In addition, assessment and testing are also a key issue in the language-based approach, indicating that language testing practices today are still largely text-oriented, focusing on the acquisition of specific academic language skills. Finally, keywords analysis results in the sociocultural approach revealed its deeply held assumptions of academic literacy development as a situated, complex sociocultural practice. One emerging feature is its growing attention to multilingualism, multiculturalism and international students. In an era of rapid globalization and academic exchange, academic literacy development has gradually become a global issue as is manifested in a rapid expansion of international students in ENL countries (Caplan & Stevens, 2017 ). These students, however, often face double barriers in language and content learning, especially in terms of advanced literacy skills development required for content learning and inquiry (Okuda & Anderson, 2018 ). In this sense, more attentions are needed for the implementation and innovation of effective community learning practices.

Data analysis results in the study reveal that: (1) academic literacy development is a multidimensional construct (Cumming, 2013 ); (2) there is a growing number of mixed-methods intervention studies in recent years especially within the language approach; (3) a gradual expansion of academic literacy research in ESL and EFL settings is perceived with increasing attention to international and multilingual students. The following parts of the discussion and conclusion will provide detailed analyses on these aspects.

Definition and keywords analysis of the academic literacy studies reveal that academic literacy is a multidimensional construct, embodying both textual and contextual practices and bears huge significance for individual language and cognitive development. Drawing from this, future researches may need to cross the boundaries to integrate the language, disciplinary and sociocultural aspects of academic literacy development within a holistic view of literacy teaching and learning. In this respect, academic literacy development can widely draw from various research domains as language acquisition, language socialization, genre and pedagogy and critical literacy (Duff, 2010 ; Gee, 2015 ; Hyland, 2008 ; Lea & Street, 2006 ; Russell, 2009 ). Future researches may need to pay more attention to these multiple aspects which closely intertwine and mutually shape one another to serve for the innovation and design of effective practices.

Data analysis in the study also demonstrated the intricate connections between literacy learning and pedagogical interventions. The development of academic literacy does not come naturally, but often calls for explicit instruction and interventions to address situated learning needs (Shanahan, 2012 ). It is hoped that in the future larger-scale interventions with more rigorous designs are necessary in pursuit of more effective pedagogical practices (Scammacca et al., 2016 ). This assumption, however, are not in contradiction to the dynamic and contextual nature of academic literacy development, as more sophisticated designs can generally provide more detailed account of the practice-driven and contextualized learning processes which are often cyclical and recursive in nature.

Lastly, results of the study revealed a growing trend of academic literacy research in EFL settings especially with respect to English language learners and international students. Compared to the ENL and ESL settings, academic literacy research in EFL settings, although a relatively recent issue, embodies huge potentialities. Drawn by the demand to promote higher-order thinking and learning and the need to innovate traditional form-focused, skilled-based EFL pedagogy, the notion of academic literacy development as a disciplinary-based, socioculturally constructed, dynamic academic socialization process offers a sensible option for pedagogical innovation and curriculum development in these contexts. In this sense, the notion of academic literacy as a multidimensional construct has provided a possible solution to the long-standing problems concerning the efficacy the efficiency of EFL education, the alignment of language and content learning as well as the challenges in curriculum design and material development in EFL settings (Wen, 2019 ).

Conclusion and implication

Results of the study suggest a relatively straight-forward agenda for the development of effective academic literacy pedagogies. Firstly, the study revealed an intricate connection between academic literacy development and disciplinary-specific knowledge construction and inquiry activities. Academic literacy development is by no means only a textual issue, but agentive scaffolded learning activities that are meaningful, purposeful and authentic. Literacy activities such as reading and writing in this sense are often object-oriented to serve for real knowledge production and communicative needs. Therefore, effective academic literacy instruction often aligns language development with content learning within meaningful disciplinary and social inquiries.

Secondly, in an era of rapid globalization and communication, the development of academic literacy often takes a critical role in resource distribution and power reconstruction. This has also led to an increasing attention to academic literacy development of international students in multilingual contexts, who often face multiple challenges in learning disciplinary literacy. However, contrary to the traditional ‘deficit model’ seeking for a remediation for their relatively ‘disadvantaged’ language background, the notion of academic literacy highlighted the role of teacher and learner agency in the development of new pedagogical practices. These innovative approaches often acknowledge and build on students’ diverse language and cultural backgrounds to make literacy learning a cognitively meaningful and culturally valuable practice.

The study can shed light on future research from both an empirical and pedagogical perspective. From an empirical perspective, future research may need to pay more attention to the multidimensionality of the construct of academic literacy. As revealed in the current study, academic literacy development embodies multiple dimensions as language learning, cognitive development and social transformation. Future research may need to transcend the epistemological boundaries to seek for a more integrated definition of academic literacy in which language, cognitive and social development mutually transform one another. From a pedagogical perspective, an activity-based, integrated pedagogy should be proposed in academic literacy development. In the case, students generally use language to engage in authentic communication and practices relating not only to the advancement of disciplinary knowledge but also for the betterment of society. As it is through these practices that students’ engagement in complex meaning making and higher order thinking are ensured, and the internalization of language knowledge and transformation of social practices gradually occur.

The study also bears some limitations. Although it seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the general trend, method and focus of academic literacy research for nearly two decades, it does not go deeper into specific studies of their findings and implications. Future studies can possibly narrow down their scope of investigation to delve deeper and provide a more thorough analysis of specific research findings.

Availability of data and materials

The studies reviewed can be referred from the reference citations in the supplementary materials.

Abbreviations

Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach

Data driven learning

English for Academic Purposes

English as a native language

English as a second language

Systemic Functional Linguistics

Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the original manuscript.

The study was supported by the start up research funding for young scholars in Nanjing Normal University (No. 184080H202A135).

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Science News

It’s time to stop debating how to teach kids to read and follow the evidence.

Too many teachers are using the wrong approach

Many U.S. teachers are not using the most science-based approaches to teach reading.

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By Emily Sohn

April 26, 2020 at 7:00 am

On a chilly Tuesday back in January, my 7-year-old son’s classroom in Minneapolis was humming with reading activities. At their desks, first- and second-graders wrote on worksheets, read independently and did phonics lessons on iPads. In the hallway, students took turns playing a dice game that challenged them to spell out words with a consonant-vowel-consonant structure, like wig or map .

In another part of the classroom, small groups of two or three children, many missing their two front teeth, took turns sitting on a color-block carpet with teacher Patrice Pavek. In one group, Pavek asked students to read out loud from a list of words. “Con-fess,” said a dimpled 7-year-old named Hazel, who sat cross-legged in purple boots and a black fleece. Pavek reminded Hazel that a vowel sound in the middle of a word changes when you put an e at the end. Hazel tried again. “Con-fuse,” she said. “Beautiful!” Pavek beamed.

When Hazel returned to her desk, I asked her what goes through her mind when she gets to a word she doesn’t know. “Sound it out,” she said. “Or go to the next word.” Her classmates offered other tips. Reilly, age 6, said it helps to practice and look at pictures. Seven-year-old Beatrix, who loves books about unicorns and dragons, advocated looking at both pictures and letters. It feels weird when you don’t know a word, she said, because it seems like everyone else knows it. But learning to read is kind of fun, she added. “You can figure out a word you didn’t know before.”

Like the majority of schools in the United States, my son’s district uses an approach to reading instruction called balanced literacy. And that puts him and his classmates in the middle of a long-standing debate about how best to teach children to read.

The debate — often called the “reading wars” — is generally framed as a battle between two distinct views. On one side are those who advocate for an intensive emphasis on phonics: understanding the relationships between sounds and letters, with daily lessons that build on each other in a systematic order. On the other side are proponents of approaches that put a stronger emphasis on understanding meaning, with some sporadic phonics mixed in. Balanced literacy is one such example.

The issues are less black and white. Teachers and reading advocates argue about how much phonics to fit in, how it should be taught, and what other skills and instructional techniques matter, too. In various forms, the debate about how best to teach reading has stretched on for nearly two centuries, and along the way, it has picked up political, philosophical and emotional baggage.

In fact, science has a lot to say about reading and how to teach it. Plenty of evidence shows that children who receive systematic phonics instruction learn to read better and more rapidly than kids who don’t. But pitting phonics against other methods is an oversimplification of a complicated reality. Phonics is not the only kind of instruction that matters, and it is not the panacea that will solve the nation’s reading crisis.

Cutting through the confusion over how to teach reading is essential, experts say, because reading is crucial to success, and many people never learn to do it well.

According to U.S. government data, only one-third of fourth-graders have the reading skills to be considered proficient, which is defined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress as demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter. And a third of fourth-graders and more than a quarter of 12th-graders lack the reading skills to adequately complete grade-level schoolwork, says Timothy Shanahan, a reading researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Those struggles tend to persist. As many as 44 million U.S. adults, or 23 percent of the adult population, lack literacy skills , according to U.S. Department of Education data. Those affected may be able to read movie listings, or the time and place of a meeting, but they can’t synthesize information from long passages of text or decipher the warnings on medication inserts. People who can’t read well are less likely than others to vote, or read the news or secure employment. And today’s technology-based job market means students need to achieve more with reading than in the past, Shanahan says. “We are failing to do that.”

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Lessons in decoding

The vast majority of children need to be taught how to read. Even among those with no learning disabilities, only an estimated 5 percent figure out how to read with virtually no help, says Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and author of Raising Kids Who Read . Yet educators have not reached consensus on how best to teach reading, and phonics is the part of the equation that people still argue about most.

The idea behind a systematic phonics approach is that children must learn how to translate the secret code of written language into the spoken language they know. This “decoding” begins with the development of phonological awareness, or the ability to distinguish between spoken sounds. Phonological awareness allows children, often beginning in preschool, to say that big and pig are different because of the sound at the beginning of the words.

Once children can hear the differences between sounds, phonics comes next, offering explicit instruction in the connections between letters, letter combinations and sounds. To be systematic, these skills need to be taught in an organized order of concepts that build on one another, preferably on a daily basis, says Louisa Moats, a licensed psychologist and literacy expert in Sun Valley, Idaho. Today, phonics proponents often advocate for the simple view of reading, which emphasizes decoding and comprehension, the ability to decipher meaning in sentences and passages.

Support for phonics has been around since at least the 1600s, but critics have also long expressed concerns that rote phonics lessons are boring, prevent kids from learning to love reading and distract from the ability to understand meaning in text. In the 1980s, this kind of thinking led to the rise of whole language, an approach aimed at making reading joyful and immersive instead of mindless and full of effort.

By the 2000s, a more all-around and phonics-inclusive approach called balanced literacy was gaining popularity as the leading theory in competition with phonics-first approaches.

In a 2019 survey of 674 early-elementary and special education teachers from around the United States, 72 percent said their schools use a balanced literacy approach , according to the Education Week Research Center, a nonprofit organization in Bethesda, Md. The implementation of balanced literacy, however, varies widely, especially in how much phonics is included, the survey found. That variation is probably preventing lots of kids from learning to read as well as they could, decades of research suggests.

In the late 1990s, with the reading wars in full swing, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development brought together a panel of about a dozen reading experts to evaluate the evidence for how best to teach reading. The National Reading Panel’s first task was to figure out which types of teaching tasks to include in the analysis, says Shanahan, a panel member. Ultimately, the group chose eight categories and conducted a meta-analysis of 38 studies involving 66 controlled experiments from 1970 through 2000. The results showed support for five components of reading instruction that helped students the most.

Five essentials

A meta-analysis of 38 studies found five components of reading instruction were most helpful to students.

Phonemic awareness Knowing that spoken words are made of smaller segments of sound called phonemes

Phonics The knowledge that letters represent phonemes and that these sounds can combine to form words

Fluency The ability to read easily, accurately, quickly and with expression and understanding

Vocabulary Learning new words

Comprehension The ability to show understanding, often through summarization

Source: National Reading Panel

Two components that rose to the top were an emphasis on phonemic awareness (a part of phonological awareness that involves the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words) and phonics. Studies included in the analysis showed that higher levels of phonemic awareness in kindergarten and first grade were predictors of better reading skills later on. The analysis couldn’t assess the magnitude of benefits, but children who received systematic phonics instruction scored better on word reading, spelling and comprehension, especially when phonics lessons started before first grade. Those children were also better at sounding out words, including nonsense words, Shanahan says.

Vocabulary development was another essential component, as was a focus on comprehension. The final important facet was a focus on achieving fluency — the ability to read a text quickly, accurately and with proper expression — by having children read out loud, among other strategies.

Even before the panel released its results in 2000 , numerous studies and books from as early as the 1960s had concluded that there was value in explicit phonics instruction. Studies since then have added yet more support for phonics.

In 2008, the National Early Literacy Panel, a government-convened group that included Shanahan, considered dozens of studies on phonological awareness (including phonemic awareness) plus phonics instruction in preschool and kindergarten. Children who got decoding instruction scored substantially bette r on tests of phonological awareness compared with those who didn’t. The benefit was equivalent to a jump from the 50th percentile to the 79th percentile on standardized tests, suggesting those students were better prepared to learn how to read.

Likewise, a 2007 meta-analysis of 22 studies conducted in urban elementary schools found that minority children who received phonics instruction scored the equivalent of several months ahead of their minority peers on several academic measures. Studies have not addressed whether phonics might help close demographic achievement gaps, but research suggests that whole language approaches are less effective in disadvantaged populations than in other groups.

“There are several thousand studies at least that converge on this finding,” Moats says. “Phonics instruction has always had the edge in consensus reports.”

It is difficult to quantify how substantial the gains are from explicit phonics instruction, partly because the bulk of published research is full of ambiguities. Randomized trials are rare. Studies tend to be small. And in schools where teachers have autonomy to respond to students at their discretion, control groups are often not well-defined, making it hard to tell what phonics-focused programs are really being compared with, or how much phonics the control groups are getting. The reality of instruction can differ from classroom to classroom, even within the same school. And students who aren’t getting intensive phonics at school may have the blanks filled in at home, where parents might sound out words and talk about letters while reading bedtime stories.

The data that are available suggest that kids who get systematic phonics lessons score the equivalent of about half a grade level ahead of kids in other groups on standardized tests, Shanahan says. That’s not a giant leap, but it helps. “Overwhelmingly in studies, both individually and in a meta-analysis where you’re combining results across studies, if you explicitly teach phonics for some amount of time, kids do better than if you don’t pay much attention to that or if you pay a little bit of attention to [phonics],” he says.

Real experiences

Some of the most compelling evidence to support a phonics-focused approach comes from historical observations: When schools start teaching systematic phonics, test scores tend to go up. As phonics took hold in U.S. schools in the 1970s, fourth–graders began to do better on standardized reading tests.

In the 1980s, California replaced its phonics curriculum with a whole language approach. In 1994, the state’s fourth-graders tied for last place in the nation: Less than 18 percent had mastered reading. After California re-embraced phonics in the 1990s, test scores rose. By 2019, 32 percent achieved grade-level proficiency.

Those swings continue today. In 2019, Mississippi reported the nation’s largest improvement in reading scores ; the state had started training teachers in phonics instruction six years earlier. For the first time, Mississippi’s reading scores matched the nation’s average, with 32 percent of students showing proficiency, up from 22 percent in 2009, making it the only state to post significant gains in reading in 2019.

England, too, started seeing dramatic results after government-funded schools were required in 2006 to teach systematic phonics to 5- to 7-year-olds. When the country implemented a test to assess phonics skills in 2012, 58 percent of 5- and 6-year-olds passed. By 2016, 81 percent of students passed. Reading comprehension at age 7 has risen, and gains seem to persist at age 11. These population trends make a strong case for teaching phonics, says Douglas Fuchs, an educational psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

A boost with phonics

After adding explicit phonics instruction statewide in 2013, Mississippi reported the nation’s largest improvement in reading scores among fourth-graders.

Mississippi fourth-grade reading proficiency

Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress 2019

Despite the evidence that children learn to read best when given systematic phonics along with other key components of a literacy program, many schools and teacher-training programs either ignore the science, apply it inconsistently or mix conflicting approaches that could hinder proficiency. In the 2019 Education Week Research Center survey, 86 percent of teachers who train teachers said they teach phonics. But surveyed elementary school teachers often use strategies that contradict a phonics-first approach: Seventy-five percent said they use a technique called three cuing. This method teaches children to guess words they don’t know by using context and picture clues, and has been criticized for getting in the way of learning to decode. More than half of the teachers said they thought students could understand written passages that contained unfamiliar words, even without a good grasp of phonics.

The disconnect starts at the top. In a 2013 review of nearly 700 teacher-training institutions, only 29 percent required teachers to take courses on four or five of the five essential facets of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel. Almost 60 percent required teachers to complete coursework on two or fewer of the essentials, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and policy group based in Washington, D.C.

Teacher’s choice

In a random sample of almost 700 U.S. early-elementary and special education teachers, most reported using a method called balanced literacy to teach reading. The simple view of reading, focused on phonics, was a distant second.

Balanced literacy Instruction includes a bit of everything, usually with some phonics.

Simple view The emphasis is on phonics, with a focus on two skills: decoding and language comprehension.

Whole language Instruction emphasizes whole words and phrases in meaningful contexts, including a strategy called three cuing.

How U.S. educators teach reading

Source: EdWeek Research Center 2020

In 2019, the Education Week Research Center also surveyed 533 postsecondary educators who train teachers on how to teach reading. Only 22 percent of those educators said their philosophy was to teach explicit, systematic phonics. Almost 60 percent said they support balanced literacy. And about 15 percent thought, contrary to evidence, that most students would learn to read if given the right books and enough time.

“The majority of classrooms in this country continue to embrace instructional practices and programs that do not include systematic instruction in foundational skills like phonemic awareness and phonics and spelling,” Moats says. “They just don’t do it.”

At my son’s Minneapolis school, reading specialist Karin Emerson told me about her early days teaching kindergarten, first and second grades in the 1990s. She was trained to use a whole language approach that included the three cuing technique.

Emerson described a typical reading lesson: “I’m going to show you a big book, and I’m going to cover up all of the letters of the word except the b , and I’m going to say, ‘Look at this page. It says this is a …’ What do you think it’s going to say?” Then she would point out the butterfly in the picture and ask the students to think about whether the b sound could refer to anything in the picture. “What does butterfly start with? A ‘b-uh.’ Do you think it’s going to be butterfly? I think it is going to be butterfly. It is.”

Eight years later, Emerson switched from classroom teacher to reading specialist, helping third-graders who weren’t reading yet. Many were the same students she had taught to read in younger grades. After reviewing the reading research, she implemented systematic phonics. By the end of third grade, students in her groups advanced an average of two grade levels. She now encourages early-grade teachers to add at least 20 minutes of phonics a day into literacy lessons.

Looking back to her classroom-teaching days, Emerson says parents often told her they were concerned that their children weren’t reading yet. “I would say, ‘Oh, they’ll be fine because they’re well spoken, they’re bright and you’re reading to them.’ Well they weren’t fine,” Emerson says. “Some people learn how to read super easy, and that’s great. But most people need to be taught, and there’s a pretty big chunk who need to be taught in a systematic way.”

While learning about ongoing battles over reading instruction, I have been marveling at my son’s transformation from nonreader to reader. One recent afternoon, he came home from school and told me that he had learned how to spell the word “A-G-A-I-N.” I asked him how he would spell it if it looked like it sounded. He worked it out, one sound at a time: “U-G-E-N.” We agreed the English language is pretty strange. It’s amazing anyone learns to read it at all.

This is your brain on reading

Reading is a relatively new activity for the human brain, which hasn’t had time to evolve specialized areas devoted to the task. Instead, our brains enlist areas, such as the visual system, that originated for other reasons, says Guinevere Eden, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. An object like a tree or a lion needs to be recognizable from any angle, she says. But when we read, we need to override that kind of pattern recognition to distinguish, say, b from d , two letters that look identical to a beginning reader.

To translate squiggles and dots into sounds, several key brain areas, in both the visual and language systems, get involved. And how involved those areas are during reading shifts with increasing mastery, according to brain-imaging studies from the last two decades. When early or experienced readers sound out an unfamiliar word, they tap into the posterior and superior temporal lobes and inferior parietal lobe, which are involved in language and sensory processing. When the brain encounters a familiar word, on the other hand, the visual cortex takes over, suggesting that known words become like any other object that the brain recognizes instantly. As a person’s reading skills improve and the mental menu of familiar words grows, activity is more pronounced in the visual cortex during reading, Eden says.

Eden uses brain scans to understand what goes wrong in children with reading disabilities, who have trouble sounding out words. One of her goals is to evaluate interventions for children with dyslexia to see if the interventions target the brain processes that are most impaired.

Despite heavy marketing by companies that sell reading products using brain scans as evidence that the companies’ methods help children learn to read, Eden says that imaging studies cannot yet answer questions about which types of reading instruction are best for children, with or without reading disabilities.

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A Comprehensive Analysis of E-Health Literacy Research Focuses and Trends

1 Department of Health Informatics and Management, The School of Health Humanities, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China; nc.ude.umjb@sirapnehcgnaw

2 The School of Health Humanities, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China; nc.ude.ukp@56213511881

Associated Data

Not applicable.

Objective: To sort out the research focuses in the field of e-health literacy, analyze its research topics and development trends, and provide a reference for relevant research in this field in the future. Methods: The literature search yielded a total of 431 articles retrieved from the core dataset of Web of Science using the keywords “ehealth literacy”, “E-health literacy” and “electronic health literacy”. A bibliometric analysis was performed by using CiteSpace to explore the development history, hot themes, and trends of future research in the field of e-health literacy. Results: The thematic evolution path in e-health literacy was divided into three stages. The research focuses were inspected from four aspects: evaluation, correlation with health-promotion behaviors, influencing factors, and intervention measures for improvement. Conclusion: E-health literacy research faces challenges such as the development of the connotation of the term, the objectivity of evaluation methods, and the long-term impact of interventions. Future research themes in e-health literacy will include the standardization of evaluation instruments and the individualization of therapeutic strategies.

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of Internet technology, an increasing number of people are using networks to communicate and search for information in their lives and work. Because of the abundance of health information resources available on the Internet and the ease with which it can be accessed, people are gradually shifting away from traditional health information sources (such as newspapers, periodicals, and doctors’ offices) and toward the Internet. According to Peterson G et al., people commonly use the Internet to hunt for health and pharmaceutical information, and they use this knowledge to play a more active role in their therapy [ 1 ]. Chen established an association between searching for health information online and using that information, as well as an association between online medical help-seeking and utilization of online health information [ 2 ].

The Internet has made health information more accessible than ever, but there are concerns about the uneven quality of online health information. Especially after the outbreak of COVID-19, the sources of health information have become diverse and filled with false and misleading information [ 3 ]. However, people cannot identify true and false network information, which poses a threat to the public. How to overcome the negative effects of online error information and enable the public to quickly obtain accurate health information through networks and maintain their health is a need for the evolution of the times. It is now recognized that enhancing e-health literacy in the population is an effective way to obtain high-quality, web-based health resources [ 4 ], and thus, e-health literacy has become an emerging area of research that is gaining public attention.

Eysenbach first proposed the concept of “e-health” in 2001. He defined e-health as an emerging field at the intersection of medical informatics, public health, and business, referring to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies. In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development but also a state-of-mind, a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology [ 5 ].” In 2005, the WHO defined e-health as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for health [ 6 ]. The concept of e-health is the basis of the concept of e-health literacy.

Norman and Skinner first defined electronic health literacy (e-health literacy) as the ability to search, locate, and evaluate health information from electronic resources to solve health problems. Although many scholars have studied the concept of e-health literacy in the later stage, they have not formed a recognized version. To date, the concept and connotation of e-health literacy proposed by Norman and others are most widely cited. They divided e-health literacy into six core competencies: traditional literacy (basic reading, understanding, communication, and writing skills), health literacy (the ability to acquire, understand, evaluate, and apply health information to make decisions related to maintaining or promoting health), information literacy (the ability to access, evaluate, and use information), media literacy (the ability to select, understand, evaluate, and create information media), scientific literacy (the ability to use scientific methods to understand, evaluate, and explain health-related problems), and computer literacy (the ability to solve problems with computers) [ 7 ]. Norman stated that the core competencies that make up e-health competency are unlikely to change, although environmental changes could create new challenges for e-health literacy. However, with the increasing application of science and technology in the medical field, the dynamic development in the e-health field has led to continuous changes in the application and understanding of e-health literacy [ 8 ].

In recent years, research on e-health literacy has become the focus of many scholars. For example, Norman et al. designed an electronic health literacy scale [ 9 ], and CJ McKinley et al. explored the nature of the relationship between informational social support and components of online health information seeking [ 10 ]. Xesfingi et al. assessed the eHealth literacy level of citizens, using the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) [ 11 ], to help researchers quickly understand the overall research status and hot spots. From the perspective of bibliometrics, this paper combs and summarizes the development process, thematic evolution, research hotspots, challenges, and development trends in the field of e-health literacy through cluster analysis and thematic evolution analysis, to provide a reference for relevant exploration and research in the future.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. data source.

According to Bradford’s Law, most of the key research appears in core international journals; thus, Web of Science was taken as the data source in this paper. The search strategy was as follows: search through the keywords “ehealth literacy”, “E-health literacy” and “electronic health literacy”, select the item type “article”, set time range from 1900 to 2021, and finally obtain 431 articles; the retrieval time was 27 May 2021.

2.2. Toolkits

To explore the research hotspots and trends of e-health literacy, this study conducted a series of bibliometric analyses on the related literature. Bibliometrics is a special type of quantitative analysis in knowledge fields that examines large amounts of scientific literature as its objects of analysis. It generally also uses various literature analysis software programs for visualization analysis and presentation of results. CiteSpace is a literature information visualization tool developed by the team of Professor Chaomei Chen at Drexel University [ 12 ]. It performs data analysis based on almost all the retrieved articles and can alleviate incomplete analysis caused by insufficient knowledge and partial literature coverage. We analyzed the research achievement distribution of a subject, subject development, and research trends, and intuitively displayed the results from the analysis by CiteSpace. First, this paper introduces the knowledge map of the time-and-space analysis, including a time distribution map and a space distribution map of ehealth literacy. Second, an analysis on the articles’ national (regional) collaboration networks, conducted using CiteSpace, is presented. Third, a keyword co-occurrence network and co-citation network analysis is presented, showing the research focus of e-health literacy in detail, including key-word extraction and frequency counting, network construction, and research focus analysis. The last section concludes the paper and suggests issues, challenges, and trends for future research.

3.1. Analysis of Time Distribution

The distribution of the number of research papers on e-health literacy can be seen using the interannual variance in the number of published articles. Figure 1 depicts the time distribution of the research literature on e-health literacy in terms of published papers. The first literature on e-health literacy was published in 2006. This study explained the concept of e-health literacy, provided an e-health literacy model, and demonstrated how to tackle the problem of e-health literacy in clinical and public health practice through a series of clinical cases [ 7 ]. There were few studies on e-health literacy until 2010; however, the number of relevant articles on this topic increased steadily from 2011 to 2016. After 2014, the number of articles increased dramatically, denoting that research on e-health literacy has received a great deal of attention. Furthermore, to ensure the timeliness of the research topic, this paper also focuses on research results published up to 27 May 2021. In the figure, only a few months of data are included in 2021, so the total number of articles is reduced.

Time distribution graph of research papers on ehealth literacy.

3.2. Analysis of Space Distribution

The national (regional) cooperation map displays the productive sources of e-health literacy research and reveals the core strengths and cooperation of relevant research. In the present research, CiteSpace was used to create national (regional) cooperation networks, as shown in Figure 2 . A node represents a country/region, the node size represents the total number of published articles, and the different colors in the node correspond to the number of articles in different time periods. The color bar at the top of the figure represents the change in years. The earliest year is on the left, and the further to the right a color is, the more recent the year. Thus, the years at the centers of the circles are the earliest, and further a layer extends outwards, the newer the year it represents. The edges between nodes represent national collaboration, and the different colors of the edge represent the different times of starting cooperation. It can be seen from the network structure that the United States is at the core and has cooperated with many countries. Moreover, their collaborative research started earlier than most other countries and regions.

National collaborative network for research on ehealth literacy.

Table 1 shows the top ten countries/regions by the number of articles published. The United States topped the list by 156 articles, accounting for more than 36%, indicating its emphasis on research in this field. This was followed by Australia and China, both with 37 articles. More than 85% of the total number of published publications came from the top ten nations and regions, indicating that the majority of research efforts on this topic are centered in these countries and locations. The centrality of a node represents the frequency with which it acts as the shortest bridge between the other two nodes. The more often a node functions as an intermediate, the stronger its centrality. Australia ranks first in terms of centrality, with 0.26, and the United States ranks second, with 0.2. The relevance of a node of a country/region in the international cooperation network is proportional to its centrality. Since 2006, related articles have been published in the United States and Canada. Around 2011, Australia (2011), the Netherlands (2011), and South Korea (2012) began conducting relevant research. Other countries and regions started publishing in 2014, albeit late. The US has an advantage in terms of article production and influence.

Country/region and number of published articles.

3.3. Keyword Analysis

The association between keywords and research focuses on a specific academic topic can be investigated by analyzing the co-word network of keywords in the article. CiteSpace developed a co-word network of keywords, which is shown in Figure 3 . The node represents a keyword. The larger the nodes, the higher the occurrence frequency of the keyword. The color bar at the top of the figure represents the change in years. The earliest year is on the left, and the further the color is to the right, the more recent the year. The different colors in the node indicate the occurrence frequency of the keyword in different time periods, the year of the center of the circle is the earliest, and the further a layer extends outwards, the newer it is. Centrality refers to being in a central position as the keyword intermediary of articles A and B, or having a keyword connecting several articles and playing a pivotal role. The word is central. The number of lines around the node indicates the centrality. The nodes with high centrality are marked with purple outer rings to represent the importance of their keywords.

Co-word network of keywords in ehealth literacy research.

To clearly present the hot topics of ehealth literacy research, the keywords with frequencies greater than 20 are shown in Table 2 . The important nodes with high frequency and centrality, including ehealth literacy (259 times, 0.1), health literacy (127 times, 0.15), information (63 times, 0.12), digital divide (41 times, 0.12), older adults (40 times, 0.13), etc., are key issues in this research field, which serve as references for the following research topic review.

Keyword frequency and centrality (Frequency > 20).

3.4. Analysis of Thematic Evolution

This paper employs CiteSpace to produce a co-word timeline view to examine the knowledge structure and evolution path of research subjects in the field of e-health literacy research, as illustrated in Figure 4 . The position of the keyword node on the timeline represents the year when the keyword first appeared, and the keyword cluster label generated by CiteSpace is displayed on the right.

Co-word timeline view of ehealth literacy research literature.

Figure 4 shows the development of keywords in each cluster, to understand the thematic evolution path of this research field. Meanwhile, according to the statistical curve of the published article number (see Figure 1 ), there was an obvious fluctuation trend in 2011 and 2016. Therefore, combined with the analysis of the above two pieces of information, this paper divides the development of ehealth literacy into three stages.

3.4.1. Emergence (Started in 2006)

Due to the rapid advancement of Internet technology, enabling the general public and consumers to broadcast and access accurate health information via electronic means has become a major topic. E-health literacy emerged as a new research subject after Norman CD presented the notion [ 7 ] in 2006 and an e-health literacy measurement scale was constructed [ 9 ]. In light of the rapid changes in information dissemination and access methods brought on by the Internet and social media, researchers have begun to investigate the factors that influence people’s search for online health information and access to information perception outcomes [ 13 ], and to develop training programs to assist people in obtaining and using high-quality Internet health information [ 14 ].

3.4.2. Implementation (Started in 2011)

With the increased usage of the Internet, new health inequities are expected to arise in the context of the growth of digital resources in the health area [ 15 ]. As a consequence, researchers have begun to focus on the e-health literacy of certain groups (such as college students, the elderly, chronic illness patients, etc.) as well as the discrepancies in literacy among them. Given the worldwide focus on population ageing strategies, more emphasis has been directed to themes such as the health information-seeking behaviors of elderly people, the means to engage in and benefit from e-health initiatives, and solutions to a variety of hurdles experienced at this stage [ 16 ]. Current themes also involve how to bridge the digital gap and increase older e-health literacy in an effective manner.

3.4.3. Development (Started in 2016)

The fast growth of health information on websites and mobile phone applications is matched by the expansion of e-health literacy applications. As shown in Figure 4 , researchers have continued with the development of more comprehensive and perfect e-health literacy assessment tools and the verification of the effectiveness of the developed tools, especially the applicability verification of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) in a multilingual setting. Individuals, communities, and people’s e-health literacy has been more crucial than ever in the face of global health concerns since the widespread spread of coronavirus [ 17 ] and constitutes the focus of the current study.

4. Analysis of Research Focus in E-Health Literacy

As seen from keyword clustering and thematic evolution, the research on ehealth literacy involves multiple subjects such as the elderly, college students, and patients with different diseases; analyzes a variety of health behaviors such as self-management, quality of life, and physical activity, as well as the digital divide caused by factors such as age and education; and develops relevant tools, as well as promoting ehealth through technology, social media, etc. Therefore, based on the co-word network of keywords, co-word timeline view, high-frequency keyword statistics, clustering, and thematic evolution path, and combined with the content of classical literature, this paper summarizes the ehealth literacy research into four topics: the evaluation of e-health literacy, the correlation between e-health literacy and health-promotion behaviors, influencing factors of e-health literacy, and interventions to improve e-health literacy.

4.1. Research on E-Health Literacy Evaluation

An essential foundation for studying public e-health literacy is a scientific evaluation of e-health literacy among different demographics, which sets the groundwork for comprehending the current situation and devising intervention strategies. As indicated in Table 3 , academics have created a variety of assessment tools to assess e-health literacy. There are differences in the relevant assessment models of these tools and their application scenarios, applicable groups, evaluation topics, evaluation dimensions, etc.

Assessment tools for eHealth literacy.

The eHEALS scale, developed by Norman, is the first self-assessment tool for evaluating e-health literacy. With a total of eight items, the scale attempts to assess six core competencies of e-health literacy, using a five-point Likert rating system to score each item. The higher the score, the better the e-health literacy [ 9 ]. The eHEALS scale is one of the most extensively used instruments to evaluate e-health literacy. Several new e-health literacy scales have been created based on this research. The e-HLS (e-health literacy scale) instrument, constructed by Seckin G, has 19 items, including three dimensions of communication, trust, and action [ 18 ]; the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI) devised by Vaart RVD et al. has 21 self-assessment projects and 7 performance-based items that require respondents to apply e-health literacy to answer objective questions [ 19 ]. The eHealth Literacy Assessment Toolkit (eHLA), created by Farnoe A et al., contains four health literacy assessment tools and three digital literacy assessment tools [ 20 ].

Additionally, several researchers built assessment tools based on the self-developed concept and framework of e-health literacy. Jean BS and others produced the DHLAT (Digital Health Literacy Assessment Tool), a story-based tool for evaluating adolescent e-health literacy [ 21 ]. In the hypothetical environment, students individually answer a series of questions to assist a peer in using the Internet to find information about the disease (type 1 diabetes) with which she has recently been diagnosed. Norgaard O. et al. developed the eHealth Literacy Framework (eHLF), which encompasses individual knowledge and skills, systems, and interactions between individuals and systems [ 22 ]. Built on eHLF, Kayser L et al. designed an eHLQ (eHealth Literacy Questionnaire) with 35 items in 7 categories, which adds the two components of personal experience and interaction with systems, providing a broader dimension of e-health literacy [ 23 ]. Paige SR et al. proposed the transactional model of eHealth literacy (TMeHL), emphasizing communicative features and focusing on individual abilities to interact and exchange information with others while solving health concerns [ 24 ]. They generated the Transactional eHealth Literacy Instrument (TeHLI) to assess perceptual abilities associated with the capacity to comprehend, discuss, evaluate, and utilize online health information [ 25 ].

Aside from designing assessment tools, eHEALS is frequently utilized since it can test e-health literacy with a brief questionnaire. However, the scale is built based on the context of Britain and America, and only an English version available, so it has to be tested to see if it is also valid in other linguistic situations. As a consequence, researchers from around the world have translated eHEALS into nearly twenty languages for testing and evaluation, including Dutch [ 26 ], Japanese [ 27 ], German [ 28 ], Portuguese [ 29 ], Spanish [ 30 ], Turkish [ 31 ], Italian [ 32 ], Korean [ 33 ], Hungarian [ 34 ], Serbian [ 35 ], Polish [ 36 ], Chinese [ 37 ], Greek [ 38 ], Norwegian [ 39 ], Amharic [ 40 ], Swedish [ 41 ], Arabic [ 42 ], and Indonesian [ 43 ]. The findings indicated that the translated versions have high internal consistency and credibility.

4.2. Research on the Correlation between E-Health Literacy and Health-Promotion Behaviors

Health-promoting behaviors include health responsibility, stress management, exercise behavior, dietary behavior, self-realization, and social support, all of which are positive activities or concepts that are beneficial to preserve or promote health [ 44 ]. They can assist individuals in avoiding disease, enhancing health, increasing quality of life, and maintaining excellent physical and mental health. Due to the widespread use of the Internet and mobile devices, most people have access to health-related information on the Internet. Individuals with varying levels of e-health literacy range in their ability to seek, comprehend, evaluate, and use online health information, as well as solve health-related problems. Understanding the importance of e-health literacy on health behaviors will equip professionals with the knowledge to enhance population health intervention, increase e-health literacy, and encourage healthy behaviors. Therefore, academics have begun to focus on the link between e-health literacy and health behaviors. Table 4 shows that the level of e-health literacy is a key factor in improving health behaviors.

Research on the correlation between e-health literacy and health behaviors.

Health responsibility refers to paying attention to and being accountable for one’s health. Studies have shown that individuals with greater levels of e-health literacy are linked to regular online searches for health information [ 45 ], as well as greater frequency of web-based health-seeking actions [ 46 ]. Individuals with better e-health literacy can acquire more accurate health-related information, evaluate the quality of information more properly, have better self-management capacity, connect with healthcare practitioners more effectively, and engage in treatment and nursing decision-making [ 47 , 48 ]. Furthermore, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the higher the level of e-health literacy, the greater the willingness to receive vaccination and the better the compliance with public health guidelines [ 49 ].

Stress management is the ability to cope with stress. Mental health benefits significantly from e-health literacy. People with e-health literacy can better analyze and alter their health state, avoid negative feelings such as fear and distrust, and enhance their mental health [ 10 ]. Individuals with greater levels of e-health literacy are more equipped to cope with challenges, which means they are less likely to suffer from sleeplessness or psychological anguish [ 50 ]. Moreover, since the outbreak of COVID-19, a great amount of incorrect and misleading information has been spreading, causing people to be confused and fearful [ 51 ]. Individuals with high e-health literacy can better obtain accurate information and manage negative emotions and symptoms, minimizing the epidemic’s frequent mental health issues (such as depression, sleeplessness, and posttraumatic stress disorder) [ 52 ].

Nutrition relates to a person’s eating habits and food choices. Healthy food consumption is adversely connected with e-health literacy, but a balanced diet and regular eating habits are favorably correlated [ 53 ]. Individuals with better e-health literacy are more likely to adopt healthy eating behaviors (for example, consuming low-fat meals, low-sugar cereals, vegetables, and fruits) [ 54 ] because they can more properly search for and interpret information about healthy eating on the Internet [ 55 ].

Exercise refers to the regular undertaking of exercise. E-health literacy can positively predict exercise [ 54 ]. Individuals with greater literacy are more likely to exercise frequently and participate in sports [ 55 , 56 ] (for example, exercise at least three times a week [ 57 ]). Furthermore, an emerging online fitness culture (including health, exercise, and fitness groups or blogs on various social networking sites) disseminates pertinent health and fitness information through online social interaction to inspire and motivate people to live a healthy life. Users of online fitness who have a high level of e-health literacy may better recognize the beneficial information in a large number of mixed materials and modify their lifestyles through appropriate activities [ 58 ].

Self-actualization implies the attitude and expectations of life. The link between e-health literacy and quality of life is clear and favorable [ 59 ]. Individuals with a high level of e-health literacy may actively create their internal resources to accomplish spiritual growth, giving them a strong feeling of purpose and optimism for the future [ 60 ].

Social support describes closeness and intimacy with others. Individuals with high e-health literacy are more likely to be able to solve interpersonal difficulties and sustain meaningful connections with others [ 60 ]. At the same time, they may make greater use of interpersonal resources and achieve better results in social relationships [ 15 ].

4.3. Research on Influencing Factors of E-Health Literacy

With the rapid development of the Internet and the increase in health information from various online sources, investigating the population’s level of e-health literacy and analyzing its influencing factors can help to formulate intervention measures to improve the population’s e-health literacy. Researchers used questionnaires and interviews to gather and evaluate data, and they discovered that the population’s degree of e-health literacy was influenced by a variety of factors, as shown in Table 5 .

Research on influencing factors of e-health literacy.

First, age is associated with e-health literacy. The younger the age, the greater the level of e-health literacy [ 61 ]. In terms of gender, women are more likely than men to seek health information on the Internet [ 62 ]; as for education, a higher education level is associated with higher e-health literacy [ 63 ]; in terms of the aspect of income, people with lower incomes have lower e-health literacy [ 64 ]; and as for residential area, the utility of online medical resources in rural populations is lower than that in urban populations [ 65 ]. People with good health perceptions are more likely to have e-health literacy, possibly because they are more inclined to seek medical resources before their health deteriorates [ 66 ]; additionally, because medical students are more exposed to medical health information in their courses of study, their electronic literacy level is higher than that of other majors [ 67 ].

Second, research indicated that a favorable attitude toward the use of online resources is associated with better levels of e-health literacy [ 66 ]. Recognizing the utility of receiving health information via the Internet and the significance of making health decisions utilizing Internet resources is another crucial component correlated to e-health literacy [ 68 ].

Finally, the motive is the internal driving force that triggers certain behaviors. Individual health awareness, as one of the reasons, has a direct influence on the use of Internet health resources; for example, those who engage in physical activity seem to be more prone to have e-health literacy [ 11 ]. Furthermore, confidence in the use and evaluation of network resources will influence e-health literacy. The amount of information literacy [ 11 ], frequency of Internet use [ 69 ], and network competency [ 70 ] are all essential parts of e-health literacy.

4.4. Research on Intervention Measures for Improving E-Health Literacy

With the widespread use of information and communication technology in the medical profession, numerous medical and health institutions and organizations are progressively posting health information on the Internet, and the Internet has become an essential source of high-quality health information. However, Internet resources can only contribute if the public has adequate e-health literacy and avoids low-quality materials that are harmful to health. According to research, the amount of e-health literacy is the best predictor of individual health behavior [ 71 ]. As a result, researchers began to focus on the design and implementation of intervention measures to foster and promote e-health literacy. Table 6 shows the most often utilized intervention approaches to increase e-health literacy at the moment.

Interventions to improve e-health literacy.

Participants accessing high-quality professional health information websites, using, querying, and learning credible health information offered by websites, and contacting relevant professionals are examples of interventions employing professional health websites. To avoid poor information on the website disrupting the learning effect of participants, high-quality websites sponsored by the government and hospitals were deployed. The results of a study on the effects of the use of professional health websites by diverse groups of teenagers with epilepsy and their parents [ 72 ], patients with heart disease [ 73 ], the elderly [ 74 ], and informal caregivers [ 75 ] revealed that participants’ e-health literacy had improved, and they had a positive attitude about the use of websites to impact their health. Furthermore, in addition to providing trustworthy information, aspects such as easy access, user-friendliness, and simple language [ 76 ] contributed to e-health literacy education.

Participants in training programs were guided in the process of searching, examining, and assessing electronic health information. Participating in massive open online courses (MOOCs) [ 77 ], viewing instructional films [ 78 , 79 ], reading text and graphic materials [ 80 ], and taking associated quizzes [ 81 ] were all practices of training, and learning techniques included autonomous learning, collaborative learning [ 82 ], and discussion learning [ 83 ]. Following the completion of the training project, participants’ e-health literacy, ability to search for health information online, knowledge of network health information, and ability to evaluate network information were greatly enhanced. It can be observed that conducting targeted e-health literacy training programs in the population effectively increases public e-health literacy.

Mobile health care apps can provide appropriate information and interventions based on users’ needs economically and efficiently and promote interaction and communication between app providers and users, allowing users to better understand medical information and monitor and manage their health status. Similarly, wearable medical devices can assist users in understanding and evaluating health information from other sources based on their personal experience by collecting and providing feedback on relevant data and resources, leading to subsequent electronic health behaviors. Competent medical health mobile terminals may provide enough health education, hence increasing the population’s e-health literacy.

Mobile health care apps can provide appropriate information and intervention based on users’ needs, in an economical and efficient manner, and promote interaction and communication between app providers and users, allowing users to better understand medical information and monitor and manage their health status [ 84 , 85 ]. Similarly, wearable medical devices can assist users in understanding and evaluating health information from other sources based on their personal experience by collecting and providing relevant data and resources, leading to subsequent electronic health behaviors [ 86 ]. Effective medical health mobile terminals can provide adequate health education, hence enhancing public e-health literacy.

Meanwhile, during the recent coronavirus epidemic, with correct information, disinformation, and changing recommendations blended in a massive amount of materials, there was a tremendous need for instructions on how to identify trustworthy health information among them. As a result, the engagement of people with higher e-health literacy in guiding people with lower e-health literacy, such as college students assisting the elderly [ 87 ] and volunteer doctors providing the most up-to-date epidemic-related information to the general population [ 88 ], can help improve e-health literacy and narrow the digital divide.

5. Limitations

This study examined and summarized relevant studies on the subject of e-health literacy. It serves as a reference for future practice and inquiry in this field. However, there are certain limitations to this paper. Only literature in the WOS core dataset was retrieved and analyzed. In addition, the data sample was not exhaustive. A further study will enlarge the scope of the literature to undertake a more thorough overview.

6. Conclusions, Challenges, and Future Trends

6.1. conclusions.

This study undertook a bibliometric analysis of e-health literacy research, and the primary work and findings are as follows.

We discovered the research trend in the field of e-health literacy by analyzing the time distributions. The study on e-health literacy has, so far, lasted for 15 years, beginning with the introduction of the concept of e-health literacy and the proposal of an e-health literacy model, and has gained increasing interest from scholars. The amount of literature has expanded dramatically, particularly after 2016, and many study outcomes have been obtained.

The spatial distribution was found by analyzing national collaboration networks. The leading nations in the research of e-health literacy are the United States, Australia, China, and Germany, and the United States has exceeded other countries in terms of quantity and influence. Globally, the proportion of cross-border and cross-regional collaboration in e-health literacy research is expanding, and research professionalism, comprehensiveness, and breadth are constantly improving.

The essential literature and thematic evolution path in the case of internet health literacy research were identified by combining and analyzing the literature co-citation network timeline view. In this paper, e-health literacy research is divided into three stages: emergence, implementation, and development. Each stage’s research material is tied to the social context and technical advancement at the time.

This report highlights the thematic review of e-health literacy research using a keyword co-word network analysis. E-health literacy research trends are diverse. Research on the evaluation of e-health literacy serves as a foundation for related research; the influential factors at the level of e-health literacy and health behavior are studied to support understanding population differences and the significance of improving e-health literacy; improving e-health literacy through intervention measures represents another direction. All of these themes underscore the primary societal concerns of e-health literacy research. The findings of this study can be used as a guide for future practice and research in this subject.

Through the study and analysis discussed above, as well as in the contemporary context of the ongoing development of Internet technology, the obstacles and future potential of e-health literacy were revealed. E-health literacy research has challenges such as the establishment and refinement of the connotation of e-health literacy, the validity of assessment instruments, and the sustainability of intervention effects. Furthermore, future research directions in e-health literacy include the standardization of assessment tools and the customization of intervention measures.

6.2. Challenges

In recent times, the rapidly evolving network has expanded access to health information, necessitating the capacity of users to acquire and analyze health information. As a result, in the popular era, e-health literacy has become an essential indicator of ability, which directly influences people’s access to health information, utilization, and making health care decisions via the network. However, with the swift advancement of science and technology, as well as the increasing use of electronic health services by the general public, it is critical to understand how to better benefit from the era of digital health services. Related research on e-health literacy faces numerous challenges.

6.2.1. The Connotation of E-Health Literacy Should Be Enhanced

To date, the concept and connotation of e-health literacy made by Norman CD et al. have been the most widely cited [ 7 ]. However, with further research and the development of Web 2.0, the means of sharing health information online are changing, and research on the definition of e-health literacy has begun to highlight the interaction between individual and technical factors [ 8 ], as well as the impact of social and environmental factors [ 89 ]. Although academics have consistently studied the new connotations of e-health literacy, a recognized version has not been developed; therefore, studies on this idea and connotation need to be completed.

6.2.2. The Objectivity of the Electronic Health Scale Is Insufficient

Zrubka Z et al. referred to the level of e-health literacy as a “self-efficacy-related measure” [ 34 ]. Because it was assessed by self-reporting, the evaluation findings depended on professional self-perception knowledge. However, this subjective measurement was not the same as the objective and functional examination of e-health literacy abilities. Individuals frequently overestimate their perceived skills, resulting in a disparity between the exam findings and real e-health literacy. Some researchers also attempted to incorporate objective metrics into assessment tools in the hopes of reducing the over- or underestimation of respondents’ e-health literacy, although the applicability of this work requires further investigation and modification [ 19 ].

6.2.3. The Sustainability of the Effects of the Intervention Requires Substantial Investigation

Currently, the intervention study sample size is limited (the number of participants is usually between 30 and 300), and the intervention duration is brief (the intervention mostly lasts for two weeks to three months). Although the intervention measures for a small number of people improved participants’ e-health literacy in a short period and yielded positive results, they could not guarantee the duration of the effect of the training or guidance received by the intervention subjects. Therefore, the sustainability of the intervention effect requires further verification.

6.3. Future Trends

Based on the existing themes and the evolution of the issue, this study proposed the following difficulties and future opportunities.

6.3.1. Standardization of E-Health Literacy Assessment Tools

The progress of e-health literacy assessment tools corresponds to the evolution of the concept of e-health literacy. As assessment tools were developed before the widespread use of social media and point-to-point resource sharing, early assessment focused mainly on individual abilities. The assessment material has expanded to include persons, technology, and the relationship between the two because the connotation of e-health literacy has evolved. Subsequent studies should be based on a comprehensive and in-depth description of e-health literacy as well as a unified definition to guide the creation and standardization of assessment tools.

6.3.2. Individualized Interventions on E-Health Literacy to Bridge the Digital Divide

Individuals’ e-health literacy is influenced by a variety of factors, leading to wide disparities. The increased breadth and complexity of Internet use, as well as the upsurge of electronic health knowledge, have resulted in unprecedented inequity in the realm of digital health information. This digital gap must be considered when developing e-health literacy programs. Specific or customized modules should be incorporated with standard intervention programs to increase individual e-health literacy and eliminate health disparities based on diverse groups (particularly those with inadequate education, older age, and lower socioeconomic positions).

6.3.3. Electronic Health Literacy Education

The acceptability of new technology begins with people’s acceptability and understanding of knowledge in a specific field. Both electronic health literacy evaluation tools and intervention measures should be developed to better educate the public on health literacy. The government, schools, and industries are all making efforts for e-health literacy education. Continuous e-health literacy education is needed in this transformation era. Approaches to increasing the participation and motivation of the expected audience should be considered for health literacy education.

Abbreviations

Author contributions.

Study conception and design: H.Q. and C.W.; Manuscript writing and preparation: C.W. and X.W.; Data collection and analysis: C.W. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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About the Project

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Additional Resources

The articles in this collection were selected from ILA journals for their direct applicability to the challenges of teaching in 2020, including the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism. They continue to provide a ready source of guidance for designing and delivering effective literacy instruction in today’s evolving teaching and learning environments.

Articles are listed in chronological order by year of publication. The complete collection is available exclusively to ILA members. Log in to access all 20 full-text articles.

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Research Articles

• Open-Access Article : "Interpreting Texts in Classroom Contexts" by Norman J. Unrau and Robert B. Ruddell ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 1995) Reviewed by Xiaochen Du, University of Florida Unrau and Ruddell propose an instructional model that aims to foster critical dialogue and meaningful interpretation of texts in the classroom …  READ MORE  ❯
• Open-Access Article : "African American Children's Literature That Helps Students Find Themselves: Selection Guidelines for Grades K–3" by Bena R. Hefflin and Mary Alice Barksdale-Ladd ( The Reading Teacher , 2001) Reviewed by Alicia Kelley, Clemson University Providing students with texts that reflect their own lives and cultures is an important starting place for educators seeking to teach Black and Brown youth in ways that empower them …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Teaching and Learning About Cultural Diversity: Becoming a Multicultural Teacher" by Howard M. Miller ( The Reading Teacher , 2001) Reviewed by Cheryl P. Lyon, University of Connecticut Almost two decades have passed since Miller's response to requests from white teachers for ways to effectively teach diverse student populations …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Critical Literacy as Comprehension: Expanding Reader Response" by Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2004) Reviewed by Brittany Adams, State University of New York at Cortland Developing critical literacy is an issue of democracy: We need thoughtful, engaged citizens now more than ever. If young people are not provided with the tools and scaffolding …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Multicultural Literature and Discussion as Mirror and Window?" by Jocelyn Glazier and Jung-A Seo ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2005) Reviewed by Kristen I. Evans, Kent State University Multicultural literature is a necessary part of all language arts classrooms. However, a text standing alone will not achieve the goals required to meet the needs of our diverse classrooms …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Stirring Up Justice: Adolescents Reading, Writing, and Changing the World" by Jessica Singer and Ruth Shagoury ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2005) Reviewed by Shannon L. Kelley, University of Connecticut Any middle or high school teacher knows that adolescents are uniquely engaged when they can learn about topics of their own interest, especially if that means addressing injustices in their own communities …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Multicultural Literature and Young Adolescents: A Kaleidoscope of Opportunity" by Susan M. Landt ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2006) Reviewed by Arianna Banack, University of Tennessee, Knoxville With attention being drawn to racial inequities and representation through the current Black Lives Matter movement, Landt reminds us how young adult literature (YAL) …  READ MORE  ❯
• "SEARCHing for an Answer: The Critical Role of New Literacies While Reading on the Internet" by Laurie A. Henry ( The Reading Teacher , 2006) Reviewed by Victoria Flores, University of Wyoming In a time when people search for answers about COVID-19 and racial inequality on the internet, it is critical that educators support students as they hone their internet search skills to …  READ MORE  ❯
• "First Graders and Fairy Tales: One Teacher's Action Research of Critical Literacy" by Ryan T. Bourke ( The Reading Teacher , 2008) Reviewed by Julie M. Carbaugh, The University of Georgia Bourke examines how first graders use critical literacy to interrupt the normalcy of the traditional happy ending and successfully reconceptualize the familiar story as perceived by the world around them …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Black Boys Can Write: Challenging Dominant Framings of African American Adolescent Males in Literacy Research" by Marcelle Haddix ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2009) Reviewed by Madison Edgar, Sam Houston State University Haddix asks educators and researchers alike to confront and disrupt bias and stereotypes about adolescent African American boys and their interest in and ability to write …  READ MORE  ❯
• "'I'm Not Stupid': How Assessment Drives (In)appropriate Reading Instruction" by Danielle V. Dennis ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2009) Reviewed by Meg Jones, University of Rhode Island The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled educators to find ways to provide meaningful instruction in increasingly limited amounts of time. At the same time, parents and policymakers continue …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Transnational and Community Literacies for Teachers" by Robert T. Jiménez, Patrick H. Smith, and Brad L. Teague ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2009) Reviewed by Meg Jones, University of Rhode Island In this pivotal moment of both a global pandemic and long overdue attention to racial injustice, teachers are increasingly stepping into the home lives of their students through virtual teaching …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Critical Conversations on Whiteness With Young Adult Literature" by Melissa Schieble ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2012) Reviewed by Heather J. Matthews, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Educators across the country are being asked to examine their beliefs and biases regarding whiteness …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Critical Literacy's Ongoing Importance for Education" by Hilary Janks ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , 2014) Reviewed by Emily S. Yerkes, University of Colorado Boulder The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice require a critical reading of both the word and the world, along with the ability to imagine something better …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Checking for Understanding Digitally During Content Area Learning" by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey ( The Reading Teacher , 2015) Reviewed by Stephanie Laird, Iowa State University Technology integration into content area learning is a continual conversation, not only due to the ongoing innovation and elimination around specific technology tools …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Culturally Diverse Literature: Enriching Variety in an Era of Common Core State Standards" by Fenice B. Boyd, Lauren L. Causey, and Lee Galda ( The Reading Teacher , 2015) Reviewed by Stephanie Laird, Iowa State University Following a diet containing only a singular food item for the duration of your educational journey would be off-putting for even the pickiest eater. Now, instead of food, consider a diet of a single story …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Exploring Digital Literacy Practices in an Inclusive Classroom" by Detra Price-Dennis, Kathlene A. Holmes, and Emily Smith ( The Reading Teacher , 2015) Reviewed by Tairan Qiu, The University of Georgia During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, remote learning and online instruction are becoming dominant in educational settings due to the health risks of physical contact …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Five Steps Toward Successful Culturally Relevant Text Selection and Integration" by Sue Ann Sharma and Tanya Christ ( The Reading Teacher , 2017) Reviewed by Kirsten Foti, Texas Woman's University Across the United States, classrooms continue to become increasingly diverse, which requires educators to think about how to make literacy instruction equitable for all learners …  READ MORE  ❯
• "Critical Expressionism: Expanding Reader Response in Critical Literacy" by Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd ( The Reading Teacher , 2019) Reviewed by Brittany Adams, State University of New York at Cortland Expanding on their 2004 article, McLaughlin and DeVoogd propose a broader view of critical responses to reading that include new modes of teaching and responding …  READ MORE  ❯
• "What Is Justice? Gifted Students' Meaning Making" by Diane Barone and Rebecca Barone ( The Reading Teacher , 2019) Reviewed by Tairan Qiu, The University of Georgia The COVID-19 pandemic (re)surfaced xenophobic sentiments and led to increasing verbal and physical attacks on Asians in the United States and globally …  READ MORE  ❯

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A guide to early learning: What to know for reading readiness

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The 2024 Reading by 9 guide was created through the generous support of the Ballmer Group . This year’s guide spotlights articles, activities, book recommendations and more for parents and educators of children ages 0-5.

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Dear parents, teachers and educators,

Whether your child is just a few months old or preparing to start kindergarten, you can read to them and build a foundation for future growth and learning. Reading to your young child can teach them about emotions and empathy; it can help enrich their vocabulary, foster learning across languages and prepare them for their school journey.

For 26 years, Reading by 9 has put together an assortment of resources and book recommendations to help parents build their child’s literacy skills. Available in English and Spanish, this year’s literacy guide is filled with research-based advice from local organizations and experts on topics ranging from social-emotional development to bilingual learning .

We hope these resources will help direct you as you embark on a journey through literacy with the child in your life and introduce them to the wonderful world of reading.

Setting a foundation for reading

Learn about the benefits of reading and how you can encourage your child to enjoy it.

These 3 activities can foster your child’s language development before transitional kindergarten

Babies learn new skills every day. Here’s what to look out for when you read to them.

It’s never too early to read to your child. Use these tips to make it fun.

How literacy can support your baby’s growth.

Literacy is integral to development. Learn how reading can help your child.

Read colorful picture books and limit screen time to enhance your baby’s visual development

How reading allows kids’ mental health to flourish and what you can do to help foster it

Three actions you can take if developmental delays are impacting your baby’s literacy

Your baby is a linguistic dynamo. Here’s how to turbocharge their superpower

Children’s desk, read aloud with your baby.

The Coquíes Still Sing

Los Coquíes Aún Cantan

Book Recommendations

Grumpy Monkey / ¡Está gruñón!

By Suzanne Lang, Max Lang Jim is in a horrible mood and just can’t shake it. His friends make suggestions but Jim can’t handle their kindness and throws a fit. Sometimes everyone just needs a day to feel grumpy. Buy here

Bugs for Lunch / lnsectos para el almuerzo

By Margery Facklam, Sylvia Long Who eats bugs for lunch? Humans, animals and plants all do in this informative book of poems. Satiate your little reader’s quest for all things creepy and crawly with this fun book. Buy here

Diez Deditos / Ten Little Fingers

By José-Luis Orozco, Elisa Kleven Folk songs from many different Spanish-speaking countries grace the pages of this book of action songs. Follow diagrams and music included to delight young readers. Buy here

Freight Train / Tren de carga

By Donald Crews This Caldecott Honor book helps young readers learn their numbers and colors in both English and Spanish. Help young readers with positional language and basic vocabulary using this classic book about trains. Buy here

In My Family / En mi familia

By Carmen Lomas Garza Carmen Lomas Garza’s paintings are described individually in both English and Spanish in this beautiful picture book. Illustrations about community and family are paired with memories about growing up in Kingsville, Texas. Buy here

Let’s Eat! / ¡A comer!

By Pat Mora, Maribel Suarez Written by the founder of the family literacy initiative, Children’s Day, this book depicts a typical day with young children. Build bilingual vocabulary around everyday family activities. Buy here

The Lizard and the Sun / La Lagartija y el Sol

By Alma Flor Ada, Felipe Dávalos After the sun disappears, people and animals are afraid. But a brave lizard refuses to give up until she brings back the light. Buy here

Who Hops? / ¿Quién salta?

By Katie Davis Some animals don’t hop, others can’t crawl. Help your young reader discover how different creatures get around in this silly picture book, available in both English and Spanish. Buy here

I Need a Hug / Necesito un abrazo

By Aaron Blabey A short and silly book about a porcupine in need of a hug (and a snake that just wants a kiss). Each page is translated in both English and Spanish within clear speech bubbles for the reader. Buy here

The Rockstar / La Guitarrista

By Lucky Diaz, Micah Player, Carmen Tafolla A young girl in Los Angeles follows her dreams to become a rockstar, using a broken guitar that she found in the trash. With the help of her community, she repairs and repaints the guitar to look brand new. Fully bilingual edition available May 7, 2024. Buy here

Isabel and her Colores go to School

By Alexandra Alessandri, Courtney Dawson Isabel speaks Spanish. When she goes to school, she has a hard time feeling comfortable because her classmates all speak English. With the help of her colores, she finds that friendship is a universal language. Buy here

Señorita Mariposa

By Ben Gundersheimer, Marcos Almada Rivero Señorita Mariposa makes her flight from the U.S. and Canada down to Mexico. Written in rhymes, some in English, others in Spanish, this book details the trip of the Monarch Butterfly. Read about how she delights the animals and people along her way. Buy here

Literacy Programs

826la - sunset blvd location, 826la - venice blvd. location, access books, children's institute, csun l.a. times literacy center, news literacy project, parentis foundation, reading is fundamental, reading partners, reading to kids, ready, set, read, read to a child, the book foundation, support services, abriendo puertas/opening doors, families forward learning center, hands together, koreatown youth and community center, little by little, mar vista family center preschool, mexican american opportunity foundation, pathways la, plaza de la raza, proyecto pastoral la guarderia, south central lamp, los angeles public library, los angeles county library, orange county public libraries.

This supplement did not involve the editorial or reporting staff of the Los Angeles Times except where noted.

The guide is free to parents, educators and organizations working with children and families. To contact us with comments and questions or to receive more information, email [email protected].

Los Angeles Times Public Affairs manages philanthropy, community engagement and corporate social responsibility at the nation’s largest metropolitan daily news organization. We broaden perspectives, empower storytellers and inspire our community to question and transform the world around them. For more information, visit latimes.com/readingby9 .

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Key facts about the nation’s 47.9 million Black Americans

The number of Black people living in the United States reached a new high of 47.9 million in 2022, up about a third (32%) since 2000, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. This group is diverse, with a growing number and share born outside the U.S. and an increasing number saying they are of two or more races.

For Black History Month, here are key facts about the nation’s Black population. In this analysis, the Black population is made up of three main groups: single-race, non-Hispanic Black people; non-Hispanic, multiracial Black people; and Black Hispanics. You can also read our newly updated fact sheet about Black Americans in 2022 .

This analysis is based on Pew Research Center tabulations of microdata from the Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey, provided through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from the University of Minnesota. The analysis identifies the nation’s Black population through self-reports of racial and ethnic identity on the 2022 ACS. The Black population includes single-race non-Hispanic Black people, multiracial non-Hispanic Black people and those who say they are Black and Hispanic. All displayed numbers are rounded. Shares and percent changes are calculated using unrounded numbers.

The analysis relies on respondent self-identification of race and ethnicity in the Census Bureau data sources such as the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) to identify the nation’s Black population. The racial and ethnic categories used in census data have changed over time – including question wording, format and instructions – and may affect how people identify by race and ethnicity. Read “ What Census Calls Us ” for more details on how U.S. racial and ethnic categories have changed since 1790. Moreover, respondents’ perceptions of the questions and their own racial and ethnic identity can change in response to individual circumstances and the way the nation sees race and itself . Starting in 2000 , Americans could select more than once racial category in census forms. Before that, many multiracial people were counted in only one racial category.

Analyses of race and ethnicity of spouses can only be done for those spouses residing in the same household; that is, the spouse does not have a separate official residence, is not stationed away from home with the military, is not institutionalized, etc. For married Black adults, 91% reside with their spouse.

U.S. Black population or total Black population refers to the population of Americans who self-identify as Black in the United States. This includes those who say their race is only Black and that they are not Hispanic; those who say Black is one of two or more races in their identity and they are not Hispanic; and those who say they are Hispanic or Latino and either Black alone or in combination with other races. The terms Black population and Black people are used interchangeably.

Adults refers to those who are ages 18 or older.

The terms single-race, non-Hispanic Black ; Black alone, non-Hispanic ; and single-race Black are used interchangeably to refer to the same population. This population is made up of individuals who self-identify only as Black and do not identify as Hispanic or Latino.

The terms multiracial, non-Hispanic Black and multiracial Black are used to refer to people who self-identify as two or more races and do not identify as Hispanic or Latino.

The term Black Hispanic is used to refer to those who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino and as Black, either alone or in combination with other races. This group is not the same as the nation’s Afro-Latino population as not all Black Hispanics identify as Afro-Latino and not all Afro-Latinos identify as Black or Hispanic.

Foreign born  refers to persons born outside of the United States to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen. The terms  foreign born  and  immigrant  are used interchangeably.

U.S. born  refers to persons born in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. The term also refers to those born abroad to a parent who was a U.S. citizen.

The Black population in the U.S. has grown by 32% since 2000, rising from 36.2 million then to 47.9 million in 2022. Notably, the number of people self-identifying as another race in addition to Black has increased nearly 254% since 2000. This reflects a broader national shift in the number of Americans identifying as multiracial , as well as changes to how the U.S. Census Bureau asks about race and ethnicity . The number of Black Americans who say they are Hispanic has also risen sharply over this period, up 199% since 2000.

The arrival of new immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere has been an important contributor to Black population growth. In 2022, there were 5.1 million Black immigrants in the U.S., up from 2.4 million in 2000, according to our analysis of Census Bureau data. Immigrants accounted for 11% of the Black population in 2022, up from 7% in 2000.

The Black population has grown fastest in states that historically have not had large numbers of Black residents. Utah experienced the fastest growth in its Black population between 2010 and 2022, with an increase of 86%. The Black populations of Hawaii and Nevada increased by 57% and 56%, respectively, during that span. (This only counts states with Black populations of at least 25,000 in 2010.)

The states that experienced the largest numerical increases in Black residents between 2010 and 2022 are also those with the largest Black populations overall: Texas (which saw growth of 1 million Black residents between 2010 and 2022); Florida (up 745,000) and Georgia (up 595,000). Each of these states now has a Black population larger than that of New York, which ranked first in 2010.

Meanwhile, the Black population declined in the District of Columbia (-2%) and Illinois (-1%) between 2010 and 2022.

New York City has more Black residents than any other metropolitan area. About 3.6 million Black Americans live in the New York metro area. Other metro areas with large Black populations include Atlanta (2.2 million), Chicago (1.7 million) and Washington, D.C. (1.6 million).

As a share of the population, the Atlanta area is home to a higher percentage of Black people than any other metro area with at least 1 million Black residents. Nearly four-in-ten residents of the Atlanta metro area (36%) are Black. The next highest shares are the metro areas of Washington (28%), Detroit (24%) and Philadelphia (23%).

The Black population of the U.S. is relatively young. In 2022, the median age of Black Americans was 32.1 years, meaning half of the nation’s Black population was younger than that age and half was older. By comparison, the median age of the nation overall was 38.0 that year.

The median age among single-race, non-Hispanic Black Americans was 34.9 in 2022, compared with 21.0 among Black Hispanics and 19.5 among multiracial, non-Hispanic Black Americans.

Educational attainment among Black Americans is on the rise. In 2022, 26.1% of Black adults ages 25 and older – 7.8 million people – had earned at least a bachelor’s degree. That was up from 14.5% in 2000.

Growing shares of Black women and Black men alike have earned at least a bachelor’s degree. But Black women have made faster gains than Black men.

In 2022, 28.9% of Black women ages 25 and older had earned at least a bachelor’s degree, up from 15.4% in 2000. Among Black men in the same age range, by comparison, 22.8% had earned at least a bachelor’s degree in 2022, up from 13.4% in 2000.

Black Americans are less likely than other Americans to be married. About a third of Black adults (32%) are currently married. That compares with 53% of adults who are not Black.

Among Black adults, 36% of men are married, compared with 29% of women. Black women, in turn, are slightly more likely than Black men to be divorced (14% vs. 10%) or widowed (8% vs. 2%).

About a sixth of married Black adults (17%) are married to someone who is not Black. This includes 21% of married Black men and 13% of married Black women. These shares only consider those who are married and whose spouses live in the same households.

Married Black women, in turn, are more likely than married Black men to have a spouse who is also Black (87% vs. 79%). This includes spouses who are single-race Black, multiracial Black and Black Hispanic.

Black households had a median annual income of $50,000 in 2022. That included a median income of $60,000 among multiracial Black households, $56,500 among Black Hispanic households and $49,500 among single-race Black households.

Looked at another way, about half of all Black households (51%) had a household income of $50,000 or more in 2022, while 49% earned less than that.

Meanwhile, a recent Pew Research Center analysis found that Black households made gains during the pandemic when it comes to wealth – the difference between the value of assets owned and debts owed. The typical single-race, non-Hispanic Black household saw a 77% increase in its wealth from December 2019 ($15,300) to December 2021 ($27,100).

Note: This is an update of a post originally published Feb. 10, 2023.

• Black Americans
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A look at Black-owned businesses in the U.S.

8 facts about black americans and the news, black americans’ views on success in the u.s., among black adults, those with higher incomes are most likely to say they are happy, fewer than half of black americans say the news often covers the issues that are important to them, most popular.

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How to Thrive as You Age

Got tinnitus a device that tickles the tongue helps this musician find relief.

Allison Aubrey

After using the Lenire device for an hour each day for 12 weeks, Victoria Banks says her tinnitus is "barely noticeable." David Petrelli/Victoria Banks hide caption

After using the Lenire device for an hour each day for 12 weeks, Victoria Banks says her tinnitus is "barely noticeable."

Imagine if every moment is filled with a high-pitched buzz or ring that you can't turn off.

More than 25 million adults in the U.S., have a condition called tinnitus, according to the American Tinnitus Association. It can be stressful, even panic-inducing and difficult to manage. Dozens of factors can contribute to the onset of tinnitus, including hearing loss, exposure to loud noise or a viral illness.

There's no cure, but there are a range of strategies to reduce the symptoms and make it less bothersome, including hearing aids, mindfulness therapy , and one newer option – a device approved by the FDA to treat tinnitus using electrical stimulation of the tongue.

The device has helped Victoria Banks, a singer and songwriter in Nashville, Tenn., who developed tinnitus about three years ago.

"The noise in my head felt like a bunch of cicadas," Banks says. "It was terrifying." The buzz made it difficult for her to sing and listen to music. "It can be absolutely debilitating," she says.

Shots - Health News

Tinnitus bothers millions of americans. here's how to turn down the noise.

Banks tried taking dietary supplements , but those didn't help. She also stepped up exercise, but that didn't bring relief either. Then she read about a device called Lenire, which was approved by the FDA in March 2023. It includes a plastic mouthpiece with stainless steel electrodes that electrically stimulate the tongue. It is the first device of its kind to be approved for tinnitus.

"This had worked for other people, and I thought I'm willing to try anything at this point," Banks recalls.

She sought out audiologist Brian Fligor, who treats severe cases of tinnitus in the Boston area. Fligor was impressed by the results of a clinical trial that found 84% of participants who tried Lenire experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. He became one of the first providers in the U.S. to use the device with his patients. Fligor also served on an advisory panel assembled by the company who developed it.

"A good candidate for this device is somebody who's had tinnitus for at least three months," Fligor says, emphasizing that people should be evaluated first to make sure there's not an underlying medical issue.

Tinnitus often accompanies hearing loss, but Victoria Banks' hearing was fine and she had no other medical issue, so she was a good candidate.

Banks used the device for an hour each day for 12 weeks. During the hour-long sessions, the electrical stimulation "tickles" the tongue, she says. In addition, the device includes a set of headphones that play a series of tones and ocean-wave sounds.

The device works, in part, by shifting the brain's attention away from the buzz. We're wired to focus on important information coming into our brains, Fligor says. Think of it as a spotlight at a show pointed at the most important thing on the stage. "When you have tinnitus and you're frustrated or angry or scared by it, that spotlight gets really strong and focused on the tinnitus," Fligor says.

"It's the combination of what you're feeling through the nerves in your tongue and what you're hearing through your ears happening in synchrony that causes the spotlight in your brain to not be so stuck on the tinnitus," Fligor explains.

A clinical trial found 84% of people who used the device experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. Brian Fligor hide caption

A clinical trial found 84% of people who used the device experienced a significant reduction in symptoms.

"It unsticks your spotlight" and helps desensitize people to the perceived noise that their tinnitus creates, he says.

Banks says the ringing in her ears did not completely disappear, but now it's barely noticeable on most days.

"It's kind of like if I lived near a waterfall and the waterfall was constantly going," she says. Over time, the waterfall sound fades out of consciousness.

"My brain is now focusing on other things," and the buzz is no longer so distracting. She's back to listening to music, writing music, and performing music." I'm doing all of those things," she says.

When the buzz comes back into focus, Banks says a refresher session with the device helps.

A clinical trial found that 84% of people who tried Lenire , saw significant improvements in their condition. To measure changes, the participants took a questionnaire that asked them to rate how much tinnitus was impacting their sleep, sense of control, feelings of well-being and quality of life. After 12 weeks of using the device, participants improved by an average of 14 points.

"Where this device fits into the big picture, is that it's not a cure-all, but it's quickly become my go-to," for people who do not respond to other ways of managing tinnitus, Fligor says.

One down-side is the cost. Banks paid about $4,000 for the Lenire device, and insurance doesn't cover it. She put the expense on her credit card and paid it off gradually.

Fligor hopes that as the evidence of its effectiveness accumulates, insurers will begin to cover it. Despite the cost, more than 80% of participants in the clinical trial said they would recommend the device to a friend with tinnitus.

But, it's unclear how long the benefits last. Clinical trials have only evaluated Lenire over a 1-year period. "How durable are the effects? We don't really know yet," says audiologist Marc Fagelson, the scientific advisory committee chair of the American Tinnitus Association. He says research is promising but there's still more to learn.

Fagelson says the first step he takes with his patients is an evaluation for hearing loss. Research shows that hearing aids can be an effective treatment for tinnitus among people who have both tinnitus and hearing loss, which is much more common among older adults. An estimated one-third of adults 65 years of age and older who have hearing loss, also have tinnitus.

"We do see a lot of patients, even with very mild loss, who benefit from hearing aids," Fagelson says, but in his experience it's about 50-50 in terms of improving tinnitus. Often, he says people with tinnitus need to explore options beyond hearing aids.

Bruce Freeman , a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says he's benefitted from both hearing aids and Lenire. He was fitted for the device in Ireland where it was developed, before it was available in the U.S.

Freeman agrees that the ringing never truly disappears, but the device has helped him manage the condition. He describes the sounds that play through the device headphones as very calming and "almost hypnotic" and combined with the tongue vibration, it's helped desensitize him to the ring.

Freeman – who is a research scientist – says he's impressed with the results of research, including a study published in Nature, Scientific Reports that points to significant improvements among clinical trial participants with tinnitus.

Freeman experienced a return of his symptoms when he stopped using the device. "Without it the tinnitus got worse," he says. Then, when he resumed use, it improved.

Freeman believes his long-term exposure to noisy instruments in his research laboratory may have played a role in his condition, and also a neck injury from a bicycle accident that fractured his vertebra. "All of those things converged," he says.

Freeman has developed several habits that help keep the high-pitched ring out of his consciousness and maintain good health. "One thing that does wonders is swimming," he says, pointing to the swooshing sound of water in his ears. "That's a form of mindfulness," he explains.

When it comes to the ring of tinnitus, "it comes and goes," Freeman says. For now, it has subsided into the background, he told me with a sense of relief. "The last two years have been great," he says – a combination of the device, hearing aids and the mindfulness that comes from a swim.

This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh

• ringing in ears
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Why a potential TikTok ban is alive again in Congress, and what’s next

Lawmakers are trying to fast-track efforts by merging them with foreign aid. the push is drawing increasing support..

Federal lawmakers are again taking up legislation to force video-sharing app TikTok to be sold or banned in the United States over national security concerns.

This time, it may have an easier path to the president’s desk.

Republican House leaders this week unveiled an unconventional plan to tuck the TikTok crackdown into foreign aid packages , a tactic which could fast-track the proposal, maneuvering the stand-alone bill that has stalled in the Senate. On Saturday, the House voted 360 to 58 to pass the bill which included the measure about TikTok.

Lawmakers have scrutinized the popular short-form video app over allegations that its links to China pose a risk to Americans’ personal data, but past attempts to ban or restrict it have run into major constitutional concerns that the efforts would infringe on the free-speech rights of its millions of U.S. users.

Here’s what to know about the plan:

Wait, didn’t the House pass this already?

Yes. Last month, the House voted 352-65 to approve legislation requiring that TikTok either be sold off from ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company, or face a national ban.

The measure — called the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, or H.R. 7521 — would give apps deemed to be “controlled” by rival foreign powers 180 days to divest or face a prohibition. The bill explicitly designates TikTok and other platforms owned by ByteDance as “foreign adversary controlled applications” and would create a mechanism by which the president could target additional apps in the future.

House lawmakers swiftly and overwhelmingly passed the bill, led by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), just over a week after it was introduced . That kicked the measure over to the Senate, where members will take the measure up early next week, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

Why are lawmakers now tying TikTok to foreign aid?

Because it speeds up the process. House lawmakers initially passed the TikTok crackdown as a stand-alone bill, but it needs to pass in the Senate, where leadership would need to either move it through a key committee or call it up on the floor for a vote.

At least one member, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has already indicated he would block calling the bill to the floor under unanimous consent. Senate leaders probably would need to dedicate a significant amount of time in committee or on the floor to debate the TikTok bill. That could prove difficult ahead of the 2024 elections.

To bypass those constraints, House lawmakers attached the TikTok legislation to a package of funding bills they were already slated to consider, to send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. Those efforts have bipartisan backing on Capitol Hill and the support of the White House , which could expedite efforts to get a deal on TikTok done as well.

The new bill, called the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act , or H.R. 8038, would allow the president to level new sanctions against Russia and Iran in addition to the TikTok provisions.

“This legislation is a first step in protecting Americans against foreign subversive data collection,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), who previously led a congressional effort to target TikTok, said during a committee hearing on Thursday.

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a statement posted online Wednesday.

When could TikTok face a ban?

Congress would first need to pass the aid package.

House lawmakers passed the bill which included the TikTok measure in a landslide Saturday. Schumer said the Senate will take the matter up Tuesday.

The bill gives TikTok just under a year to divest from ByteDance. While the original House bill gave TikTok 180 days to be sold , the version included in the aid package gives the company 270 days and allows the president to extend by an additional 90 if “significant progress” has been made toward a divestiture.

At that point, if ByteDance refuses to sell, mobile app stores and web-hosting services would be prohibited from offering TikTok to the public — effectively banning the app from the United States.

Is the TikTok bill more likely to become law now?

It appears so. The TikTok proposal already had broad bipartisan support in the House, and President Biden said last month he would sign it into law if it came to his desk. The only outstanding question was whether enough of the Senate would rally behind the push.

After the House quickly passed its TikTok crackdown, many senators struck a cautious tone, urging colleagues not to rush through consideration of the issue. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), whose committee has jurisdiction over the TikTok bill, expressed concern that the proposal would not survive legal challenges and floated first holding a hearing on the topic .

But in a notable shift, Cantwell announced in a statement Wednesday that she supports the updated TikTok legislation now that it gives the company additional time to divest. Cantwell had previously cast doubt on its prospects for passage, creating a major roadblock for the effort .

“As I’ve said, extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done,” said Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee.

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), another key voice in the TikTok debate as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he supports the House’s inclusion of the TikTok crackdown in their foreign aid package.

“I’m glad to see the House help push this important bill forward to force Beijing-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok,” Warner told The Washington Post in a statement. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the Intelligence Committee’s vice chairman, also supports the maneuver, a spokesman confirmed in an email.

A number of senators on both sides of the aisle have previously called for the chamber to take up the bill ahead of the 2024 elections. This may now become their most viable path to do so.

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Chinese Company Under Congressional Scrutiny Makes Key U.S. Drugs

Lawmakers raising national security concerns and seeking to disconnect a major Chinese firm from U.S. pharmaceutical interests have rattled the biotech industry. The firm is deeply involved in development and manufacturing of crucial therapies for cancer, cystic fibrosis, H.I.V. and other illnesses.

A WuXi Biologics facility in Wuxi, China. WuXi AppTec and an affiliated company, WuXi Biologics, have received millions of dollars in tax incentives to build sprawling research and manufacturing sites in Massachusetts and Delaware. Credit... Imaginechina Limited, via Alamy

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By Christina Jewett

• April 15, 2024

A Chinese company targeted by members of Congress over potential ties to the Chinese government makes blockbuster drugs for the American market that have been hailed as advances in the treatment of cancers, obesity and debilitating illnesses like cystic fibrosis.

WuXi AppTec is one of several companies that lawmakers have identified as potential threats to the security of individual Americans’ genetic information and U.S. intellectual property. A Senate committee approved a bill in March that aides say is intended to push U.S. companies away from doing business with them.

But lawmakers discussing the bill in the Senate and the House have said almost nothing in hearings about the vast scope of work that WuXi does for the U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical industries — and patients. A New York Times review of hundreds of pages of records worldwide shows that WuXi is heavily embedded in the U.S. medicine chest, making some or all of the main ingredients for multibillion-dollar therapies that are highly sought to treat cancers like some types of leukemia and lymphoma as well as obesity and H.I.V.

The Congressional spotlight on the company has rattled the pharmaceutical industry, which is already struggling with widespread drug shortages now at a 20-year high . Some biotech executives have pushed back, trying to impress on Congress that a sudden decoupling could take some drugs out of the pipeline for years.

WuXi AppTec and an affiliated company, WuXi Biologics grew rapidly, offering services to major U.S. drugmakers that were seeking to shed costs and had shifted most manufacturing overseas in the last several decades.

WuXi companies developed a reputation for low-cost and reliable work by thousands of chemists who could create new molecules and operate complex equipment to make them in bulk. By one estimate, WuXi has been involved in developing one-fourth of the drugs used in the United States. WuXi AppTec reported earning about $3.6 billion in revenue for its U.S. work.

“They have become a one-stop shop to a biotech,” said Kevin Lustig, founder of Scientist.com, a clearinghouse that matches drug companies seeking research help with contractors like WuXi.

WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics have also received millions of dollars in tax incentives to build sprawling research and manufacturing sites in Massachusetts and Delaware that local government officials have welcomed as job and revenue generators. One WuXi site in Philadelphia was working alongside a U.S. biotech firm to give patients a cutting-edge therapy that would turbocharge their immune cells to treat advanced skin cancers.

The tension has grown since February, when four lawmakers asked the Commerce, Defense and Treasury Departments to investigate WuXi AppTec and affiliated companies, calling WuXi a “giant that threatens U.S. intellectual property and national security.”

A House bill called the Biosecure Act linked the company to the People’s Liberation Army, the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party. The bill claims WuXi AppTec sponsored military-civil events and received military-civil fusion funding.

Richard Connell, the chief operating officer of WuXi AppTec in the United States and Europe, said the company participates in community events, which do not “imply any association with or endorsement of a government institution, political party or policy such as military-civil fusion.” He also said shareholders do not have control over the company or access to nonpublic information.

Last month, after a classified briefing with intelligence staff, the Senate homeland security committee advanced a bill by a vote of 11 to 1: It would bar companies from receiving government contracts for work with Wuxi, but would allow the companies to still obtain contracts for unrelated projects. Government contracts with drugmakers are generally limited, though they were worth billions of dollars in revenue to companies that responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr. Connell defended the company’s record, saying the proposed legislation “relies on misleading allegations and inaccurate assertions against our company.”

WuXi operates in a highly regulated environment by “multiple U.S. federal agencies — none of which has placed our company on any sanctions list or designated it as posing a national security risk,” Mr. Connell said. WuXi Biologics did not respond to requests for comment.

Smaller biotech companies, which tend to rely on government grants and have fewer reserves, are among the most alarmed. Dr. Jonathan Kil, the chief executive of Seattle-based Sound Pharmaceuticals, said WuXi has worked alongside the company for 16 years to develop a treatment for hearing loss and tinnitus, or ringing in the ear. Finding another contractor to make the drug could set the company back two years, he said.

“What I don’t want to see is that we get very anti-Chinese to the point where we’re not thinking correctly,” Dr. Kil said.

It is unclear whether a bill targeting WuXi will advance at all this year. The Senate version has been amended to protect existing contracts and limit supply disruptions. Still, the scrutiny has prompted some drug and biotechnology companies to begin making backup plans.

Peter Kolchinsky, managing partner of RA Capital Management, estimated that half of the 200 biotech companies in his firm’s investment portfolio work with WuXi.

“Everyone is likely considering moving away from Wuxi and China more broadly,” he said in an email. “Even though the current versions of the bill don’t create that imperative clearly, no one wants to be caught flat-footed in China if the pullback from China accelerates.”

The chill toward China extends beyond drugmakers. U.S. companies are receiving billions of dollars in funding under the CHIPS Act, a federal law aimed at bringing semiconductor manufacturing stateside.

For the last several years, U.S. intelligence agencies have been warning about Chinese biotech companies in general and WuXi in particular. The National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the arm of the intelligence community charged with warning companies about national security issues, raised alarms about WuXi’s acquisition of NextCODE, an American genomic data company.

Though WuXi later spun off that company, a U.S. official said the government remains skeptical of WuXi’s corporate structure, noting that some independent entities have overlapping management and that there were other signs of the Chinese government’s continuing control or influence over WuXi.

Aides from the Senate homeland security committee said their core concerns are about the misuse of Americans’ genomic data, an issue that’s been more closely tied to other companies named in the bill.

Aides said the effort to discourage companies from working with WuXi and others was influenced by the U.S. government’s experience with Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant. By the time Congress acted on concerns about Huawei’s access to Americans’ private information, taxpayers had to pay billions of dollars to tear Huawei’s telecommunication equipment out of the ground.

Yet WuXi has far deeper involvement in American health care than has been discussed in Congress. Supply chain analytics firms QYOBO and Pharm3r, and some public records, show that WuXi and its affiliates have made the active ingredients for critical drugs.

They include Imbruvica, a leukemia treatment sold by Janssen Biotech and AbbVie that brought in $5.9 billion in worldwide revenue in 2023. WuXi subsidiary factories in Shanghai and Changzhou were listed in government records as makers of the drug’s core ingredient, ibrutinib.

Dr. Mikkael A. Sekeres, chief of hematology at the University of Miami Health System, called that treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia “truly revolutionary” for replacing highly toxic drugs and extending patients’ lives.

Janssen Biotech and AbbVie, partners in selling the drug, declined to comment.

WuXi Biologics also manufactures Jemperli, a GSK treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year for some endometrial cancers. In combination with standard therapies, the drug improves survival in patients with advanced disease, said Dr. Amanda Nickles Fader, president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology.

“This is particularly important because while most cancers are plateauing or decreasing in incidence and mortality, endometrial cancer is one of the only cancers globally” increasing in both, Dr. Fader said.

GSK declined to comment.

The drug that possibly captures WuXi’s most significant impact is Trikafta, manufactured by an affiliate in Shanghai and Changzhou to treat cystic fibrosis, a deadly disease that clogs the lungs with debilitating, thick mucus. The treatment is credited with clearing the lungs and extending by decades the life expectancy of about 40,000 U.S. residents. It also had manufacturers in Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The treatment has been so effective that the Make-A-Wish Foundation stopped uniformly granting wishes to children with cystic fibrosis. Trikafta costs about $320,000 a year per patient and has been a boon for Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals and its shareholders, with worldwide revenue rising to $8.9 billion last year from $5.7 billion in 2021, according to a securities filing .

Trikafta “completely transformed cystic fibrosis and did it very quickly,” said Dr. Meghan McGarry, a University of California San Francisco pulmonologist who treats children with the condition. “People came off oxygen and from being hospitalized all the time to not being hospitalized and being able to get a job, go to school and start a family.”

Vertex declined to comment.

Two industry sources said WuXi plays a role in making Eli Lilly’s popular obesity drugs. Eli Lilly did not respond to requests for comment. WuXi companies also make an infusion for treatment-resistant H.I.V., a drug for advanced ovarian cancer and a therapy for adults with a rare disorder called Pompe disease.

WuXi is known for helping biotech firms from the idea stage to mass production, Dr. Kolchinsky said. For example, a start-up could hypothesize that a molecule that sticks to a certain protein might cure a disease. The company would then hire WuXi chemists to create or find the molecule and test it in petri dishes and animals to see whether the idea works — and whether it’s safe enough for humans.

“Your U.S. company has the idea and raises the money and owns the rights to the drug,” Dr. Kolchinsky said. “But they may count on WuXi or similar contractors for almost every step of the process.”

WuXi operates large bioreactors and manufactures complex peptide, immunotherapy and antibody drugs at sprawling plants in China.

WuXi AppTec said it has about 1,900 U.S. employees. Officials in Delaware gave the company $19 million in tax funds in 2021 to build a research and drug manufacturing site that is expected to employ about 1,000 people when fully operational next year, public records and company reports show.

Mayor Kenneth L. Branner Jr. of Middletown, Del., called it “one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to land a company like this,” according to a news report when the deal was approved.

In 2022, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts expressed a similar sentiment when workers placed the final steel beam on a WuXi Biologics research and manufacturing plant in Worcester. Government officials had approved roughly $11.5 million in tax breaks to support the project. The company announced this year that it would double the site’s planned manufacturing capacity in response to customer demand.

And in Philadelphia, a WuXi Advanced Therapies site next to Iovance Biotherapeutics was approved by regulators to help process individualized cell therapies for skin cancer patients. Iovance has said it is capable of meeting demand for the therapies independently.

By revenue, WuXi Biologics is one of the top five drug development and manufacturing companies worldwide, according to Statista , a data analytics company. A WuXi AppTec annual report showed that two-thirds of its revenue came from U.S. work.

Stepping away from WuXi could cause a “substantial slowdown” in drug development for a majority of the 105 biotech companies surveyed by BioCentury , a trade publication. Just over half said it would be “extremely difficult” to replace China-based drug manufacturers.

BIO, a trade group for the biotechnology industry, is also surveying its members about the impact of disconnecting from WuXi companies. John F. Crowley, BIO’s president, said the effects would be most difficult for companies that rely on WuXi to manufacture complex drugs at commercial scale. Moving such an operation could take five to seven years.

“We have to be very thoughtful about this so that we first do no harm to patients,” Mr. Crowley said. “And that we don’t slow or unnecessarily interfere with the advancement of biomedical research.”

Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting, and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

Christina Jewett covers the Food and Drug Administration, which means keeping a close eye on drugs, medical devices, food safety and tobacco policy. More about Christina Jewett

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Louisiana’s flagship university lets oil firms influence research – for a price

Louisiana State University allowed Shell to influence studies after a $25m donation and sought funds from other fossil fuel firms

• This story is co-published with the Lens, a non-profit newsroom in New Orleans

For $5m, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company weigh in on faculty research activities. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with “robust” reviewing powers and access to all resulting intellectual property.

Those are the conditions outlined in a boilerplate document that Louisiana State University’s fundraising arm circulated to oil majors and chemical companies affiliated with the Louisiana Chemical Association, an industry lobbying group, according to emails disclosed in response to a public records request by the Lens .

Records show that after Shell donated $25m in 2022 to LSU to create the Institute for Energy Innovation, the university gave the fossil fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university’s new concentration in carbon capture, use and storage.

Afterward, LSU’s fundraising entity, the LSU Foundation, used this partnership as a model to shop around to members of the Louisiana Chemical Association, such as ExxonMobil , Air Products and CF Industries, which have proposed carbon capture projects in Louisiana.

For $2m, Exxon became the institute’s first “strategic partner-level donor”, a position that came with robust review of academic study output and with the ability to focus research activities. Another eight companies have discussed similar deals with LSU, according to a partnership update that LSU sent to Shell last summer.

Some students, academics and experts said such relationships raise questions about academic freedom and public trust.

Asked to comment, the Institute for Energy Innovation’s director, Brad Ives, defended the partnerships, as did the oil majors. Two more companies have since entered into partnerships with the Institute for Energy Innovation, said Ives. But Shell is the only company to have donated at the level that gave the company a seat on the advisory board that chooses the institute’s research. The head of the Louisiana Chemical Association and the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association also sit on the advisory board, which can vote to stop a research project from moving forward.

Ives said being able to work with oil and gas companies is “really a key to advancing energy innovation”.

A spokesperson for Shell said: “We’re proud to partner with LSU to contribute to the growing compendium of peer-reviewed climate science and advance the effort to identify multiple pathways that can lead to more energy with fewer emissions.”

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said: “Our collaboration with LSU and the Institute for Energy Innovation includes an allocation for research in carbon capture utilization and storage, as well as advanced recycling studies.”

LSU has long had a close-relationship with oil majors, the names of which hang from buildings and equipment at the university. Nearly 40% of LSU funding comes from the state, which received a good chunk of its revenue from oil and gas activities until the 1980s. In recent years, oil and gas revenue has made up less than 10% of the state budget.

But the new, highly visible partnership with Shell took the closeness a step further, promising corporations voting power over the Institute for Energy Innovation’s research activities in return for their investment.

“I have a hard time seeing a faculty member engaged in legitimate research being eager for an oil company or representative of a chemical company to vote on his or her research agenda,” said Robert Mann, political commentator and former LSU journalism professor . “That is an egregious violation of academic freedom.

“You don’t expect to see it written down like that,” Mann said, after the Lens asked him to review the boilerplate document that outlines what companies can expect in return for their donations to LSU’s Institute for Energy Innovation. It is not appropriate, Mann said, for faculty research to be driven by the decisions of the dean of a university, let alone an outside industry representative. “If you’re a faculty member in that unit you should know that the university is fine with auctioning off your academic freedom,” he said. “That’s what they’re doing.”

Ives of LSU said its Institute for Energy Innovation is no different to similar institutes across the US, including the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, which performs research supported by corporate donors. “I think researchers saying that somehow having corporate funding for research damages the integrity of that research is a little far-fetched,” Ives said.

Research performed at the institute is subject to the faculty’s individual ethics training and subject to peer-review, he said. “A donor that provided money that goes to the institute isn’t going to be able to influence the outcome of that research in any way.”

Asked about the relationship with the institute and industry, Karsten Thompson, the interim dean of the College of Engineering at LSU said: “To me, it’s not a conflict at all. It’s a partnership because they’re the ones that are going to make the largest initial impacts on reducing CO 2 emissions.”

Some observers, noting that fossil fuel companies have previously shown a vested interest in obscuring scientific conclusions, question the reliability of academic studies sponsored by fossil fuel companies. Exxon, for example, denied the risk of human-caused climate change for decades , noted Jane Patton, an LSU alumna and the US fossil economy campaign manager for the Center for International Environmental Law.

After the Lens asked her to review LSU communication on the matter, Patton said she suspected that fossil fuel companies have had a say in what does and doesn’t get studied in relation to risky endeavors, such as carbon capture, which involves chemically stripping carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and piping it underground. For her, the LSU documents basically proved her fear. “This is the first time I’ve seen actual evidence of it,” Patton said. “This is a gross misuse of the public trust.”

To Patton, the perceived blurring of academic objectivity could not come at a worse time in Louisiana, as the climate crisis makes the state less habitable and housing more expensive . “It’s just disheartening,” she said. “To find that the state’s flagship institution is allowing industry to determine the research agenda. No wonder it’s so hard to find peer-reviewed research about how bad this is.”

Records show that Shell helped to tailor what LSU students would learn in the six courses offered under the institute’s carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) concentration that debuted a couple years ago. The LSU alumnus Lee Stockwell, Shell’s general manager of CCUS, sat on the search committee for the Energy Institute executive director, served on the petroleum engineering advisory board, and was very involved in shaping the carbon capture curriculum.

Stockwell directed questions about Shell’s partnership with the university to LSU.

Stockwell was not the only oil representative to help design the curriculum. BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil also had representatives on the ad hoc advisory committee that designed carbon capture coursework within the petroleum engineering department, according to a July 2022 email from Thompson . At least one cohort of students took two elective courses at LSU designed by the oil majors and another 10 students were expected to take the full concentration beginning in 2022.

LSU is not alone in this practice, Thompson said. At most engineering departments in the country, an active Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) weighs in on curricula, so that degrees evolve as technology changes, helping students land internships and jobs.

LSU faculty has not been similarly engaged with renewable energy companies, because oil and gas companies have the resources to tackle the climate crisis now – and are not reliant on future technology, Thompson said. “Renewable energy is much more abstract,” he said. “So, I think that’s the difference. It’s not that we don’t care as much.”

Fossil fuel companies have been finding their way into classrooms for decades, in part to help the industry retain a positive public image in the face of a heating planet.

Some students do not approve of the university’s partnerships with fossil fuel companies, or any financial ties with them.

For a decade now, students across the nation have filed complaints and demanded divestment from fossil fuels and hundreds of institutions have agreed. Locally, the LSU Climate Pelicans, an interdisciplinary group of students, have called for the university to divest endowment funds from the fossil fuel industry.

Inspired by the Climate Pelicans’ work toward divestment, the LSU graduate student Alicia Cerquone, who sits on the LSU’s student senate, sponsored a divestment resolution. The measure passed in a 37-2 vote last year, according to LSU’s student newspaper . Though investment in fossil fuels amounts to only 2 to 3% of the endowment, it’s an important philosophical step, Cerquone said.

Cerquone is also troubled by the influence that industry has on the Institute for Energy Innovation and fears other corporations could control other departments’ curriculums. “These entities are going to have a say in what we pay to learn here,” she said.

The fossil fuel industry has made forays into academia beyond Louisiana. ExxonMobil and Shell have both helped fund a similar Energy Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the highest-level donors can have an office on MIT’s campus, according to Inside Climate News . In 2021, Exxon funded and co-wrote a research paper with MIT researchers with conclusions that supported the argument for federal subsidies for carbon capture and use.

This story is co published with the Lens , a non-profit newsroom in New Orleans and part of its Captured Audience series, which is supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism

• Oil and gas companies
• Big oil uncovered
• US universities
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• Climate crisis
• Energy industry

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