Editorial Ethics & Guidelines

We feel it is important for our audience to know the values and expectations we have for our writers. These Editorial Ethics & Guidelines outline the principles we follow to ensure our content is relevant, accurate, and honest.

 

Relevancy

Our editorial team focuses on the content relevant to the website’s core audience. This not only means that we strive to make the media covered relevant to the website in question, but also that the style of content matches the intended purpose. For us, this is the most fundamental pillar of good and useful reporting.

 

Accurate Headlines & Featured Images

All titles and featured images should give our audience the greatest degree of clarity possible. As such, we have three standards for titles and featured images:

• Accurate to the content of the piece.
  • Headlines and featured images should clearly indicate what the piece will cover. The articles address the main subject promptly to meet reader expectations set by the headline.

• Does not mislead or hyperbolize.
  • Headlines and images should contain accurate information only and reflect the content’s subject matter without embellishment or misleading claims.

• Allows the user to easily locate information they search for.
  • All headlines and featured images are designed to help users locate relevant information easily, and are to be understandable at a glance.

 

Fact-Checked Content

Any information presented in our content that is not common knowledge should be verified by a relevant source. It is our editorial duty to do research to ensure accuracy. If a fact cannot be verified in a timely manner, it should either be removed or clearly labeled as unconfirmed.

 

Grammar, Formatting, and Flow

It is the duty of all writers and editors at Lexicon to correctly format all content with regard to grammar and spelling, to ensure that it is structured well and matches other content on the site in question, and that it is stylistically readable and clear for a general audience. All content is subject to an editing pass before publication.

 

Ethical Journalism

Writers at Lexicon Gaming are familiar with the Society of Professional Journalists’ 1-page Code of Ethics, which you can read at https://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf. These include rules around accuracy, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, and transparency, among many others.

Conflicts of Interest

Of particular note are rules around conflicts of interest, which we will highlight and contextualize here: we do not, and will never, accept payments or gifts – in any form – from game companies in exchange for coverage of their game. This includes monetary compensation, but also payment for travel, free meals, and products that are not being given for review.

Plagiarism

We require that all written content must be original or appropriately credited. If quoting from external sources, we ensure they are clearly cited and linked when possible. Community-based knowledge and common knowledge do not require citation and cannot meet the threshold for plagiarism, so long as any surrounding explanatory content is not plagiarized.