Accreditation Policy

The Portal to the Universe provides priority access for bona-fide journalists to press releases and embargoed press releases.

The Portal to the Universe accreditation policy is designed to be as broad as possible. Our goal is to be able to promote broad dissemination of information, while still protecting embargoed content from being leaked early. To balance these two needs, we require all journalists to provide a minimum of contact information and proof of past reporting, and we reserve the right to revoke accreditation for journalistic ethics violations.

In order to become accredited as a journalist at Portal to the Universe, you must provide basic contact information, including your real name and basic geographic information. You must also provide the website URL for the company or new media outlet that you report for. This website will be used to confirm that you communicate astronomy/science to the public or are a mainstream journalist. We do not require those with journalist credentials to be paid for their work or to work for accredited news outlets. Bloggers with a history of communicating astronomy news may request and receive accreditation.

Accreditation may be revoked without warning if embargoed information is leaked prior to the lifting of the embargo, or for repeated egregiousness mis-reporting that constitutes egregious violations of journalistic ethics.