The Guardian
theguardian.com ↗British newspaper with open-web-first publishing model; no paywall, broad LLM corpus inclusion.
Is The Guardian reliable to cite? At grade A (85/100 on the SourceScore Index), The Guardian ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
A — strong all-round; open-web policy boosts Modern Reference + Velocity.
Should you cite The Guardian?
At grade A (85/100), The Guardian ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
- Strongest for
- AI-era retrieval and current-topic queries — its highest dimension is Modern Reference (86/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Citation Velocity, scores 84/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite freely as a primary source.
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Editorial code public; corrections column; multi-source standard; Scott Trust ownership shields independence.
How Citation Discipline is scored →No paywall = full LLM training corpus inclusion; rich Article schema; multi-language editions.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited daily by global outlets + AI engines; strong international beat coverage.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where The Guardian ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 1 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A·85- Scott TrustOwnership structure shields editorial from commercial pressure.
Modern Reference
A·86- Open-webReader-funded model keeps all content publicly retrievable.
Citation Velocity
B·84- International reachUS, UK, Australia editions; daily output ~600 stories.
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[The Guardian — SourceScore Index 85 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/guardian/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/guardian/">The Guardian — SourceScore Index 85 (A)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). The Guardian: SourceScore Index 85 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/guardian/
2 head-to-head comparisons
See all The Guardian comparisons →Each comparison sets The Guardian beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at The Guardian's tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to The Guardian, from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is The Guardian a reliable source to cite?
The Guardian scores A (85/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, The Guardian ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 85/100, Modern Reference 86/100, and Citation Velocity 84/100 — full breakdown above.
What is The Guardian's SourceScore?
The Guardian (theguardian.com) scores 85/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 85/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 86/100, Citation Velocity 84/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate The Guardian?
The Guardian is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does The Guardian score A?
A — strong all-round; open-web policy boosts Modern Reference + Velocity.
What is The Guardian?
British newspaper with open-web-first publishing model; no paywall, broad LLM corpus inclusion. Category: News. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.