Overall Score

The following are the overall bias and reliability scores for Science News according to our Ad Fontes Media ratings methodology.

Reliability: 47.37

Bias: -1.86

Panels of analysts from Ad Fontes Media regularly review representative sample content to rate it for reliability and bias. Each panel of analysts comprises one left-leaning, one right-leaning, and one center-leaning analyst.

The team considers a variety of factors when rating content. To determine its reliability score, we consider the content’s veracity, expression, its title/headline, and graphics. We add each of these scores to the chart on a weighted scale, with the average of those creating the sample content’s overall reliability score.

To determine sample content’s bias score, we consider its language, its political position, and how it compares to other reporting or analysis from other sources on the same topic. We add each of these scores to the chart on a weighted scale, with the average of those creating the content’s overall bias score.

The bias rating, demonstrated on the Media Bias Chart^®️ on the horizontal axis, ranges from most extreme left to middle to most extreme right. The reliability rating, demonstrated on the chart’s vertical axis, rates sources on a scale from original fact reporting to analysis, opinion, propaganda and inaccurate/fabricated information.

Reliability scores for articles and shows are on a scale of 0-64. Scores above 40 are generally good; scores below 24 are generally problematic. Scores between 24-40 indicate a range of possibilities, with some sources falling there because they are heavy in opinion and analysis, and some because they have a high variation in reliability between articles.

Bias scores for articles and shows are on a scale of -42 to +42, with higher negative scores being more left, higher positive scores being more right, and scores closer to zero being minimally biased, equally balanced, or exhibiting a centrist bias.

Individual Content Sample Scores

These are the most recent content samples that Ad Fontes Media analysts have rated for this source.

Content Sample URL	Bias	Reliability
Changing climate: 10 years after An Inconvenient Truth	-7.67	47.33
Earth may have 9,200 more tree species than previously thought	-2.67	47.33
A disinfectant made from sawdust mows down deadly microbes	0	49
A new antiviral pill cuts COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates	0	41.33
2020 babies may suffer up to seven times as many extreme heat waves as 1960s kids	-5	44.67
COVID-19 testing in schools works. So why aren’t more doing it?	0	48
Here’s what we know about booster shots for Moderna’s and J&J’s COVID-19 vaccines	0	47.33
Methods of getting results from real-world experiments win 2021 economics Nobel	0	48.33
The U.S.’s first open-air genetically modified mosquitoes have taken flight	0	46.33
Here’s what breakthrough infections reveal about COVID-19 vaccines	0	50
Meet three Reddit moderators fighting disinformation on r/Coronavirus	0	48
COVID-19 vaccine inequity will prolong the pandemic and cost lives	-1.33	49.33
How 5 universities tried to handle COVID-19 on campus	0	54
Most pro athletes who got COVID-19 didn’t develop heart inflammation	0	49.67
COVID-19 has exacerbated a troubling U.S. health trend: premature deaths	-1	48
Black, Hispanic and female police use force less often than white male officers	-3.67	44
Some COVID-19 survivors face another foe: PTSD	0	47
How perceptions of diversity vary by race and political views	-1.33	45.67
Coronavirus reinfections appear rare, especially in people younger than 65	0	47.33
We still don’t know for sure where the coronavirus came from. Here’s why	0	45.33
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine isn’t tied to blood clots, experts say	0	44
Chemists are reimagining recycling to keep plastics out of landfills	-4.67	47.33
What do COVID-19 vaccines mean for daily life in the months ahead?	0	47
The first black hole image helped test general relativity in a new way	0	50.67