Immigration

If American colleges were to halt race-based admissions decisions, they could still ensure a racially diverse student body if they started giving preference to lower-income students while also urging more minorities to apply, a new analysis suggests.

News of immigrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border has sparked outrage among the American public. Community leaders and private citizens alike have expressed concerns about undocumented children being placed in shelters or with foster care families while their parents face prosecution for entering the country illegally.

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Affordable Care Act declined among Hispanic citizens of the United States after the Secure Communities program took effect, a working paper by Marcella Alsan of Stanford Medical School and Crystal Yang of Harvard Law School finds.

Journalists rely on three types of research papers most often in their work: White papers, working papers and peer-reviewed journal articles.

How are they different? And which is best?

Below, we explain each, pointing out its strengths and weaknesses. As always, we urge journalists to use care in selecting any research to ground their coverage and fact-check claims.

Peer-reviewed article

California’s eugenic sterilization program disproportionately targeted Latinos — especially Latina women, who had a 59 percent higher risk of forced sterilization than women of other racial and ethnic backgrounds, new research finds.

Immigrants to the United States who are not citizens are more likely to have worse oral health compared to natives and naturalized citizens, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Dental Association.