SourceScore
News

The New York Times

nytimes.com ↗

U.S. national newspaper of record, founded 1851. Pulitzer Prize record + investigative depth + structured-data-rich web platform.

Is The New York Times reliable to cite? At grade A (88/100 on the SourceScore Index), The New York Times ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.

SourceScore Index
A·88Rank #33 of 130 · top 25%Composite weighted across Discipline, Modern Reference, and Velocity.

A — top-tier US journalism; high velocity + strong discipline; Modern Reference slightly hampered by paywall.

Should you cite The New York Times?

At grade A (88/100), The New York Times ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.

Strongest for
topics where being widely and recently cited matters — its highest dimension is Citation Velocity (92/100).
No major weak spot
Even its lowest dimension, Modern Reference, scores 82/100.
Bottom line
Cite freely as a primary source.
Compare The New York Times with
Citation Discipline
A·88

Multi-source verification; fact-check + corrections processes public; named bylines + editor accountability.

How Citation Discipline is scored →
Modern Reference
B·82

Schema-rich; Article + Person + Organization JSON-LD; machine-readable; metered paywall reduces some training-corpus inclusion.

How Modern Reference is scored →
Citation Velocity
A·92

Cited many times daily by other tier-1 outlets + AI engines; sets news cycle.

How Citation Velocity is scored →

Where The New York Times ranks in our best-of lists

It is on 2 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.

Signals behind these scores

Citation Discipline

A·88
  • Public corrections
    Daily corrections column dating back decades.
  • Editor accountability
    Public editor / standards editor roles.

Modern Reference

B·82
  • Paywall metering
    Subscription gate; partial corpus availability.

Citation Velocity

A·92
  • News-cycle setting
    NYT exclusives drive same-day coverage across global media.

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APA
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). The New York Times: SourceScore Index 88 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/nyt/

Each comparison sets The New York Times beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.

5 sources at The New York Times's tier

See peer group →

The five sources with the closest overall score to The New York Times, 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 New York Times a reliable source to cite?

The New York Times scores A (88/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, The New York Times ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 88/100, Modern Reference 82/100, and Citation Velocity 92/100 — full breakdown above.

What is The New York Times's SourceScore?

The New York Times (nytimes.com) scores 88/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 88/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 82/100, Citation Velocity 92/100. Verified 2026-04-28.

How does SourceScore evaluate The New York Times?

The New York Times 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 New York Times score A?

A — top-tier US journalism; high velocity + strong discipline; Modern Reference slightly hampered by paywall.

What is The New York Times?

U.S. national newspaper of record, founded 1851. Pulitzer Prize record + investigative depth + structured-data-rich web platform. Category: News. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.