Science Feedback releases datasets of Web domain credibility

Assessing the reliability of online sources of information at scale is a necessary precondition for improving the quality of the information sphere.

Many academics and expert civil society organizations have been working on this issue and have published lists assessing the credibility of sources of online information, typically focusing on a specific topic or geography. Science Feedback has devised a methodology to compile and aggregate these lists into a single domain-level providing a “Consensus Credibility Score”.

This aggregation approach maximizes both coverage, as individual datasets complement each other, and accuracy, as many domains are rated by multiple experts, each bringing their own insights and methods into assessing reliability.

Science Feedback announces the publication of two extensive lists assessing domain credibility:

• The Consensus Credibility Scores list covers over 24,000 domains from more than 100 countries. It is compiled by aggregating information from dozens of preexisting public domain-level credibility lists. More details are available here.
• The SCENT list provides ratings for more than 700,000 domains. These ratings are predictions made by a machine learning model, which is trained on the Consensus Credibility Scores data and analyzes the patterns of hyperlinks between domains to evaluate their credibility. More details are available here.

These lists are available for projects that contribute to the public good. Science Feedback extends an invitation to academics, civil society and regulators to access and utilize this data. Interested parties are encouraged to contact us for further information.

For access or additional information, contact us.

This project was supported by the EMIF.

The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the author(s) and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.