Standards

These are the rules the masthead holds itself to. They are public so that readers can hold us to them too.

Editing

Every piece is edited by at least one editor other than its author before it runs. The editor’s name runs with it. The Editor in Chief is edited like everyone else and skips nothing.

Sourcing

Claims of fact carry sources. Writers check them; editors check the writers. Where a piece says an institution broke a rule, some body with the standing to say so has already said it, and that document is named at the foot of the piece. We do not adjudicate. We report what has been adjudicated.

The documents box

Every piece ends with the primary record it was built on and the named parties on each side of the question. The reader gets what we got and can go check us.

If we interview you or write about your institution

Interviews are recorded with your consent. Before publication, we send you the exact quotes we plan to use so you can confirm we have your words right. We do not send the piece itself, and we do not revise quotes into what anyone wishes they had said. If we write about your institution, we ask it for comment before we publish and we print what it says.

Credit

No piece runs with one name on it. Every article carries the author’s byline and a named credit for the editor who worked it. Research, data, graphics, and fact checking are credited by name when someone did them. A credit describes work actually done.

Corrections

Corrections run promptly and visibly. A correction appears in two places: a marked box on the piece itself, and a dated line on the Corrections ledger. The ledger is permanent. We do not quietly fix things.

Disagreement

The publication takes no side as an institution. Writers argue under their own names, and the masthead will run two of them disagreeing in the same week.

Writing tools

A byline means the writing is yours. Research tools, including AI, may inform research and critique. The drafting, the argument, and the responsibility belong to the author, and any use beyond research is disclosed to the editor before the edit begins.

Access

The two most recent pieces are open to anyone. Older pieces ask for an email address and nothing else. Membership is free and there is no paid tier. Pieces that a writer has cited elsewhere, in a pitch, a bio, or an application, stay open permanently so that anyone following the link can read the work.

Rights

Writers keep full rights to their own work and may republish it anywhere. We encourage our own editors to pitch their strongest work to outside publications with their own editorial gates first, and we link the piece here afterward.