Vox Sentences - Vox’s fact-checking process, explained

The Vox Explainer is a newsletter exclusively for Vox Members. We are sharing a sneak peek at the latest edition in which the style and standards team explains Vox's fact-checking and copyediting process. To get access of future versions of the Vox Explainer and other member benefits, become a Vox Member today.

Hello,

I’m Sarah Schweppe, the style and standards editor at Vox. My team is responsible for copy editing and fact-checking text, audio, and video stories. We may not have bylines, but our mark is all over the work that Vox publishes. 

In the age of misinformation, fact-checking is more important than ever. Whether it is studying data spreadsheets to be sure the numbers in a feature on factory farming add up or flagging that a photo is AI-generated, my team is focused on making sure readers get the truth. 

I talked to Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who designed our fact-checking process, and podcast fact-checker and data expert Melissa Hirsch about what goes into verifying every detail of a story, video, or podcast at Vox. 

—Sarah Schweppe, style and standards editor

Beyond the Byline

With Vox’s style and standards team

What do you look for when you’re flagging a story for fact-checking?

Caitlin: Stories I want to fact-check fall into two buckets. The first is a story that’s an ambitious, reported piece, the kind that takes a big swing and may make waves. We want to be all buttoned up on a story like that — not just to ensure the reporting is sound, but to get the details correct so a minor error doesn’t detract from the strength of the reporting. 

The second bucket is stories that have a lot of facts in them. These are stories drawing on academic studies, diving deep into a niche topic, or speaking to a lot of experts. Maybe a reporter is crunching numbers or digging into a historical event. The more facts, the more opportunity there is for numbers to get transposed or for misattributions, so these stories benefit from a second set of eyes on all those facts. 

Vox members also heard about the following topics:

To get access to the full Q&A with the style and standards team, become a Vox member and support our commitment to creating factual and error-free journalism.