STAT News vs The Lancet
Health-vertical investigative journalism vs flagship medical journal — same beat, different formats.
STAT News
Health + biotech newsroom; founded 2015; specialist medical journalism with editorial discipline.
The Lancet
Peer-reviewed general medical journal since 1823; flagship clinical-research publication.
Head-to-head — all four dimensions
| Dimension | STAT News | The Lancet | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
SourceScore Index Composite | B·82 | A·86 | The+4 |
Citation Discipline How rigorously cited | A·88 | A+·95 | The+7 |
Modern Reference AI-era fitness | B·80 | B·82 | The+2 |
Citation Velocity Cited per week | B·78 | B·80 | The+2 |
Why these scores
Citation Discipline
Specialist editors with medical/science training; multi-source verification; corrections public.
Peer-review enforced; methodology + data disclosure increasingly mandatory; retraction watch active.
Modern Reference
Open + metered articles; broad LLM corpus presence in health vertical.
DOIs + structured abstracts; metered paywall partial-LLM-corpus.
Citation Velocity
Cited heavily within medical journalism + biotech investing; AI engines surface for biomedical news.
Cited by clinicians + medical journalism; narrower volume than wire news but high per-cite trust.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, STAT News or The Lancet?
The Lancet scores higher on the SourceScore Index (A 86) vs STAT News (B 82) — a 4-point composite lead across Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, and Citation Velocity. "Better" depends on use case; the per-dimension breakdown below shows where each wins.
Which is more reliable to cite, STAT News or The Lancet?
For citation, The Lancet is the stronger choice — it scores A (86/100) on the SourceScore Index versus STAT News at B (82/100), a 4-point lead in composite citation quality (Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, Citation Velocity). Both can be cited; for higher-stakes references, prefer The Lancet.
How does STAT News compare to The Lancet on citation discipline?
STAT News scores A 88 on Citation Discipline; The Lancet scores A+ 95. Citation Discipline measures how rigorously each source cites primary references — see the per-dimension rationale below for the breakdown.
What's the SourceScore difference between STAT News and The Lancet?
STAT News B 82 vs The Lancet A 86 on the composite Index. Health-vertical investigative journalism vs flagship medical journal — same beat, different formats.
Why does The Lancet score higher than STAT News?
The Lancet leads by 4 composite points on the SourceScore Index. The rationale section below breaks down where the lead comes from — Citation Discipline, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness), and Citation Velocity. Each dimension is scored from primary methodology criteria.
Sources & references
Every score on this page is read from the two publications below and graded against the published rubric. No score is bought, estimated or supplied by the source being scored.
- Source evaluated — STAT News (statnews.com) · verified · full scoring record
- Source evaluated — The Lancet (thelancet.com) · verified · full scoring record
- Scoring rubric — SourceScore Index, Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, Citation Velocity (methodology v0.1)
- Machine-readable record — /api/compare/statnews-vs-the-lancet.json