Editorial Standards

OnlySky publishes for readers who value reason, evidence, and intellectual honesty. These standards describe how we produce our journalism and the commitments every piece we publish is held to. They sit alongside our Editorial Perspective, our Generative AI Standards and Practices, our Corrections Policy, and our Ownership & Funding disclosures.

Editorial independence

OnlySky is editorially independent. As detailed on our Ownership & Funding page, we have no parent companies and no outside investors, and no funder, advertiser, or donor has any influence over our editorial decisions. All editorial direction is set internally by the founder and the editorial team, led by our Editor-in-Chief. Should any conflict of interest ever arise, we will disclose it transparently to our readers.

How we think: secular habits of mind

Our work is grounded in secular habits of mind — rationalism, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning. We reject motivated reasoning, the habit of choosing a preferred conclusion and then arguing backward to it, in favor of the approaches that get us closer to the truth than supernatural or ideological thinking can. Our Editorial Perspective explains this approach — and our focus on exploring the many possible futures — in more depth.

Human authorship and editorial oversight

Every OnlySky article is the product of human creativity, editorial oversight, and rigorous fact-checking. Our bylines belong to real writers, and the final voice and perspective of every piece are theirs. Every submission undergoes rigorous human review by our editorial team to ensure accuracy, coherence, and journalistic integrity.

Accuracy and verification

We hold our published work to a high standard of accuracy. Claims are fact-checked and reviewed before publication, and when we get something wrong we correct it openly and promptly under our Corrections Policy. We do not remove content in order to correct it; we update it transparently, and for significant changes we note the correction clearly.

Our use of AI

We treat artificial intelligence as an assistive tool, never a replacement for human judgment — AI should serve human creativity, not replace it. AI may assist with research and idea generation, but it does not write our articles, and any AI-generated material is treated as source input subject to the same human review and fact-checking as any other research. We do not publish fully AI-generated articles, with one clearly labeled exception: content created specifically to demonstrate AI's capabilities or risks. AI-generated images are disclosed in their captions, and any AI personas we use — such as those in our podcasts — are clearly identified as such. We do not create deepfakes, synthetic personas representing real people, or AI-generated endorsements. Our full Generative AI Standards and Practices set this out in detail.

Your feedback

We value our readers' trust and treat it as something to be earned continually. If you have a concern about the accuracy or integrity of our work, please reach out through our Corrections Policy or email editor@onlys.ky.