Standards & Practices

Business hours

The Ithacan office (Park 220) is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the academic year. The office is closed during academic breaks.

Corrections and takedown policy

The Ithacan welcomes notifications concerning errors in fact that warrant correction. These can be emailed to [email protected]. In cases where inaccuracy has been determined, the story will be corrected and an editor’s note indicating the place and manner of that correction will be indicated at the bottom of the story online and on Page 2 of the print edition.

With those exceptions, content published by The Ithacan, either in print or online, is considered part of the historical record and will not be altered or removed from the paper’s website, either in part or as a whole, unless the information is later found to be false or puts someone’s safety at risk by remaining on our site. All takedown requests will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, with the current editor-in-chief making the final decision.

Opinion policies

Columns — Opinion pieces regularly published by the paper and represent solely the opinion of the author.

Guest Commentary — A commentary offers the opinion of someone in our community who has expertise or authoritative knowledge about the issue. The purpose is to introduce a diversity of opinion to our readers, and therefore, the views presented in commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board. All commentaries must:

• Convey a clear message
• Be written by an individual or group who has an educated opinion or is an authority on a specific subject
• Be between 650-750 words. Whether more or less space is allotted is at the discretion of the editor

Editorial — An editorial is an article that gives the opinions of the editors or publishers of a newspaper or magazine. The Ithacan’s editorials offer an informed point of view on the most important issues in the news. While they are always based on factual information, editorials themselves are not news stories.

Reviews — Reviews represent the opinion of the reviewer, and not that of The Ithacan editorial board.

Letter to the editor — Letters to the editor must be 250 words or fewer and submitted to [email protected] or dropped off in The Ithacan office (Park 220) by 5 p.m. Monday to appear in that Thursday’s edition of the paper.

Editorial cartoon — Editorial cartoons reflect the content in the editorials. The cartoon’s design is decided by the opinion editor and cartoonist, independent of the rest of the editorial board.

Sourcing policies

Direct quotes — Readers can safely assume that every word between quotation marks is what the speaker said. Obvious detractors like “um” and false sentence starts are deleted and replaced by ellipses (…), and capitalization, punctuation and spelling are formatted for consistent style. If needed, words will be added sparingly in square brackets to aid in clarifying the source’s meaning. In cases where the writer is referencing a press release or something a source wrote, the information will be attributed with the indicator, “source stated.” In all instances, the intention of the original quote will be preserved.

Paraphrased quotes — In some instances, a source’s words may be paraphrased and incorporated into the body of a paragraph rather than directly quoted. This may be done to rephrase awkward sentence construction or grammar that would distract from the information provided by the source or to make information more concise. In all instances, the intention of the original quote will be preserved.

Referencing scholarly or media sources — Any information gathered from a scholarly source, government website, or news or broadcast report will be attributed to that source. However, attribution of information to another publication does not absolve The Ithacan from spreading misinformation. In other words The Ithacan’s reporting standards are also applied to any outside publications’ information referenced in The Ithacan.

Anonymous sources — The use of unidentified sources is reserved for situations in which the newspaper could not otherwise print information it considers newsworthy and reliable. When possible, reporter and editor should discuss any promise of anonymity before it is made or before the reporting begins on a story that may result in such a commitment. While the identity of a source may be withheld in the story, it is always known to the reporter and editor. We defer to the Associated Press style rule of providing readers with the reasoning for granting anonymity.

Fact-checking

Fact-checking is performed on all content, including opinion pieces, by our copy editing staff. For concerns about incorrect facts, please email [email protected].

Photography and illustrations

All photography used in The Ithacan depicts reality. Photo captions will always be used to explain the context of the image. In some cases, a photograph may be used to represent an issue, idea or concept. These images will be clearly labeled as photo illustrations, including instances where photos have been posed or digitally altered to enhance their visual effect.

Last updated Fall 2022