KSJ Tracker is a service for science journalists, created and funded by the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and launched in May 2006. We believe that if science reporters and editors have convenient and timely access to the work of peers across the country, they can better evaluate and improve their own performance.

Our goal is to provide a broad sampling of the past day’s science news and, where possible, of news releases or other news tips related to publication of science news in the general circulation news media, mainly of the U.S. Our goal is to have a new batch of posts up each day of the work week by 2 pm Eastern time.

We also give science journalists the opportunity to suggest stories (click on “Suggest Stories” at the top of the page) and to comment constructively on one-another’s work (Click on “Comments” at the bottom of each post). All readers may send the staff an email via the “Contact Us” function at the top of the home page.

The volume of science-related news makes a genuinely comprehensive site impossible, but we get what we can. The principal tracker is Charles Petit, a longtime science reporter known to many in the field. When Charlie’s away, either Boyce Rensberger or John D. Cox fills in. Plus, we recently have added a tracker to focus on medical journalism, Paul Raeburn, to take deep looks at news from the health sciences in particular.

And important recent change is to acknowledge reporting in other languages. Pere Estupinyà is covering Spanish language media, and plans are afoot to add German language publications and perhaps others. Brief bios are on our staff page.

KSJ Tracker ordinarily includes brief descriptions of news stories with some commentary, headlines and links to their publishers’ Web sites—some of which require registration to gain access. Priority goes to stories that report or analyze new scientific research, and to reports on science policy and issues. Less attention is given to brief reports and updates that add little to what has already been in the news.

Also, we may include selected links to press releases and other raw material connected to stories, and occasionally to particularly important new entries on blogs or other sites that come to our attention.

We encourage your comments and discussion.

If you know of worthy stories, tell us. Comments can be posted only by visitors who have applied for registration and been verified as working journalists, public relations officers of scientific institutions, journalism students or journalism faculty members. Your comments will carry your real name. Any comments deemed outside the bounds of professional commentary will be removed by the staff, and after repeated offenses the commenter’s posting privilege will be revoked. To register to comment, click on the “Registration” button at the top of the page.

Daily e-mail version

If you’d like an e-mailed version of each day’s new posts, you may subscribe to that by putting your address in the box near the upper right-hand corner of the home page. You will then receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your subscription, which you must do to make it effective.

RSS feeds

Just drag the “RSS” (in the list of links at the right) to a folder in your news aggregator. Or right-click on “Entries” or “Comments” and click on “Copy link location.” Then paste it into your RSS reader.

The Knight Fellowship is funded primarily by an endowment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.