Editorial Policy
DoctorNewsGlobal reports on medicine, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technology, hospitals and health policy for people who work in healthcare. Our readers make decisions on the strength of what they read, so this page sets out how we work: what we choose to cover, how we handle evidence, what we do when we get something wrong, and where the line between editorial and commercial sits.
What we cover
We publish what changes how care is delivered or how the health industry operates. In practice that means clinical research with results a practitioner could act on, regulatory decisions, drug and device approvals, hospital and health-system strategy, and the business of pharma, biotech and medical technology.
We do not publish consumer health advice, treatment recommendations, wellness content or anything written to be searched for by a patient looking for a diagnosis. That is a different job, done by different publications, and doing it badly causes real harm.
How we choose stories
A story earns its place when it is new, when it is verifiable, and when it matters to someone doing this work. Novelty on its own is not enough: a striking result from a small, early-stage or unreplicated study is a story about uncertainty, and we write it that way or we leave it alone.
We do not run a press release because it arrived. Announcements from companies, institutions and regulators are a starting point for reporting, not a substitute for it.
Sources and evidence
We say where information comes from and we link to the original wherever one exists — the paper, the regulatory document, the filing, the transcript. A reader should be able to check us.
When we report research we say what kind of study it was, how large it was, who funded it and what it does not show. Preprints and conference abstracts are labelled as such, because they have not been through peer review. Relative risk without absolute numbers is misleading, so we give both where the source allows.
Where a source has an interest in the outcome — a manufacturer, a sponsor, an investigator with a financial relationship — we say so in the story rather than leaving the reader to find out.
Checking before publication
Every article is read by an editor before it goes out. Names, figures, dates, drug names, doses, institutions and quotations are checked against the primary source, not against another news report. Headlines are held to the same standard as the article: a headline that claims more than the evidence supports is wrong even when the text below it is careful.
If a claim cannot be stood up in time, it does not go in. We would rather publish later than publish something we cannot support.
Corrections
We correct mistakes openly. When we publish something inaccurate, we fix it as soon as we have established what the right information is, and the article carries a note saying what was changed and when. We do not quietly edit a story and leave no trace: a reader who saw the original deserves to know it changed.
Small typographical fixes that do not alter meaning are made without a note. Anything that changes the substance of a story — a figure, a name, a finding, a conclusion — is marked. If a story is wrong in a way that cannot be repaired by correction, we withdraw it and leave an explanation in its place rather than deleting the page.
To report an error, write to corrections@doctornewsglobal.com with the headline, the address of the page and what specifically is wrong. That is what lets us check it quickly.
Editorial independence
Editorial decisions are made by editors. Advertisers, sponsors and commercial partners have no say in what we cover, how we cover it, or when something is published, and they do not see stories before publication. No advertiser is exempt from coverage, and buying advertising does not earn anyone favourable treatment or protection from unfavourable treatment.
Advertising and sponsored content
Advertising is labelled as advertising. Any commercial content — sponsored articles, supported features, partner material — carries a clear label naming who paid for it, and it does not use the same presentation as our journalism. It is not written by the newsroom.
Where we cover a company that also advertises with us, we disclose the relationship in the story. Our commercial terms are on the advertising page.
Anonymous sources
We prefer named sources. We grant anonymity when the information is in the public interest and the person would face a real professional or personal cost for giving it — not as a convenience, and not to let someone attack a competitor without accountability. When we use an anonymous source we say why they are unnamed and what their position is, as precisely as we can without identifying them.
This page
These are working rules, not decoration. If you think we have departed from them, tell us at editorial@doctornewsglobal.com.