Ethics Policy

Last updated: 10 June 2026

Trust is the entire business of a news publication. This policy sets out the ethical rules AkronScore operates under. They apply to the editor and to anyone who ever contributes a word to this site.

Core principles

• Truth first. We publish what the evidence supports, even when it is unpopular, inconvenient, or bad for traffic.
• Independence. No advertiser, source, platform, or political interest directs our coverage.
• Fairness. People and organizations criticized in our reporting get the chance to respond, and their response is reported honestly.
• Transparency. We show our sources, label our content types, and disclose anything a reasonable reader would want to know.
• Accountability. We sign our work, we answer for it, and we correct it in public when it is wrong.

Conflicts of interest

Contributors must not report on companies they hold significant investments in, organizations that employ them or their immediate family, or any matter where they stand to gain personally from the coverage. Where a minor connection exists and the story still makes sense to write, the connection is disclosed in the article. When in doubt, we disclose or we pass on the story.

Gifts, payments, and freebies

• We do not accept payment, gifts, or favors in exchange for coverage, positive or negative
• We do not accept paid junkets; where review products are loaned, the article says so
• Nobody can pay to be covered, and nobody can pay to be uncovered

Sponsored content and advertising

Advertising keeps the site free, and it lives behind a firewall:

• Sponsored or paid content, if it appears, is labeled clearly enough that no reasonable reader could mistake it for news
• Advertisers get no preview, no input, and no veto over editorial content
• Ad placements never influence which stories we pursue
• Full funding details are published on our Ownership and Funding page

Sources and subjects

• We identify ourselves as journalists when reporting
• We keep our promises to sources, including confidentiality where granted
• We do not pay sources for information
• We take care with people who are grieving, victims of crime, or otherwise vulnerable, and we weigh public interest against private harm before publishing

Plagiarism and fabrication

Plagiarism, invented quotes, fabricated sources, and manufactured details end a contributor’s relationship with this site immediately. There are no second chances on fabrication. Building on another outlet’s reporting is normal journalism; doing it without naming and linking them is theft.

Accuracy and corrections

The ethical duty does not end at publication. Errors are corrected visibly under our Corrections Policy, and significant corrections are acknowledged wherever the story was promoted.

Political coverage

AkronScore has no party affiliation and endorses no candidates. We report on politics when it intersects with our beats, we apply the same scrutiny in every direction, and we keep the editor’s personal politics out of the news columns.

Use of AI

AI tools may assist research and editing under human supervision, as described in our Editorial Policy. AI never decides coverage, never publishes unsupervised, and is never used to fabricate quotes, sources, images, or events. A human is responsible for every published word.

Raising a concern

If you believe anything on this site falls short of this policy, email support@akronscore.org. Ethics complaints go straight to the editor, are taken seriously, and get a substantive reply.