01 / Tips
News tips & reader reports
For original reporting leads, study pre-prints, retracted trials, marketing claims that don't match the label, and patient-safety incidents.
Email the tips desk →Contact the Newsroom
How to reach the editors, clinicians, and fact-checkers behind VitalScope.
We answer every message routed to the right desk — usually within two business days. Sources and whistleblowers can reach us through encrypted channels; readers with general questions can use the addresses below.
Routing guide
How to reach the right desk.
Pick the channel that matches your message. The right inbox shortens our response time and protects your source if you're sending one.
02 / Press
Press & partnerships
Journalists requesting comment, conference invitations, syndication requests, and academic collaborations with our editorial board.
Email the press desk →03 / Corrections
Corrections & reader challenges
Spotted an error, a miscited statistic, or a quote that's been paraphrased past recognition? Our corrections desk triages within hours, not weeks.
Email the corrections desk →04 / General
General editorial & reader mail
Story pitches from clinicians, reader letters, podcast guest pitches, and questions about coverage. We read everything; we answer what we can.
Email the editors →Editorial headquarters
VitalScope Media, Inc.
480 Boylston Street, Suite 410
Boston, MA 02116, USA
Anonymous channels
SecureDrop: vitalscope-health
Signal: on request via tips@
PGP fingerprint: 0x4F8A · published at /standards/
Standards
What happens after you send a tip.
A plain-language explanation of how our newsroom handles incoming material — what we accept, what we can't act on, and how we protect you if you're a source.
What we accept
- Original documents — clinical trial data, FDA correspondence, internal memos, and unpublished manuscripts. We verify against primary sources before quoting.
- Retraction patterns — if a study, supplement claim, or guideline has been quietly retracted, we will trace the citation chain and publish the trail.
- Patient-safety reports — adverse-event clusters, device failures, or prescribing patterns that diverge from the evidence base. We protect patient identity by default.
- Reader challenges — disagreements with our coverage, with citations. If we're wrong, we publish the correction in the public log.
What we don't cover
- Individual medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment recommendations. We are a publisher, not a clinic — please contact a licensed provider for personal care.
- Product placement, sponsored content, or paid endorsements. We've turned down an estimated $8.4M in pharma and supplement ad spend since 2019 to keep it that way.
- Anonymous attacks on named clinicians or researchers without documentary evidence.
- PR pitches unrelated to peer-reviewed evidence or public-health impact.
How we protect sources
- Sources can request full attribution, on-background, or deep-background framing before any conversation begins.
- We do not waive source protection under non-disclosure pressure; if served, we commit to fight it in court and notify readers.
- Encrypted channels (SecureDrop, Signal, ProtonMail) are available on request. PGP key and fingerprints are published at our Editorial Standards page.
- We never publish a source's name without explicit, recorded consent — even when a source later goes public elsewhere.
Our response window
Tips: 1–3 business days. Press inquiries: same business day. Corrections: same business day, with a public entry in the Corrections Log. General editorial mail: two business days. If we cannot respond — for legal or ethical reasons — we will tell you so, in writing.
What our fact-checkers actually verify
Every claim in every article is checked against primary databases — PubMed, Cochrane Reviews, FDA/EMA filings, and ClinicalTrials.gov — with citations linked inline. Our average fact-check turnaround is 38 minutes per article, the fastest in the health-publisher category per a 2023 Press Gazette benchmark. 96% of corrections are caught before readers notice them.