Around here, we take rectangles seriously.

I’m Jen, Founder, Editor, and Chief Investigator of National Institute for Extremely Large Rectangles.

I’m not from Missouri but I am from the Show Me State. My favorite phrase is SHOW ME THE CARFAX. I like big facts and I cannot lie.

At National Institute for Extremely Large Rectangles, we don’t trust and we do verify because we’ve seen some shit.

“We don’t have responsive documents” in response to a document request is not the same thing as “the documents don’t exist.”

Our shovels are as big as our attitude because we’re from New Jersey, the “Garden State,” where we’ve rolled out the welcome mat for data centers and all other kinds of infrastructure so they can give us the DuPont treatment all over again. On the upside, we still don’t pump our own gas — not that we can’t! We’re just too busy investigating data centers.

We’re not pro-data center. We’re not anti-data center. We are PRO HUMANITY. As squishy little humans ourselves, we enjoy breathable air, drinkable water, and being able to go outside and touch grass every once in a while, and we don’t think that’s asking too much.

Despite the side-eye and ridiculous titles, we are a serious newsroom with serious editorial standards. The National Institute for Extremely Large Rectangles publishes journalism that helps people understand major infrastructure projects being proposed, approved, built, and operated in their communities.

BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE EDITORIAL STANDARDS

Our work may be produced by Institute journalists or contributed by journalists working in local newsrooms, independent publications, nonprofit news organizations, newsletters, and other journalism projects. We apply the same editorial standards regardless of where a journalist works.

Accuracy and verification

We publish information we have a reasonable basis to believe is accurate. We expect reporting to:

• Rely on identifiable and credible sources.

• Verify material factual claims before publication.

• Distinguish documented facts from estimates, projections, opinions, and allegations.

• Attribute information to its source when attribution helps readers evaluate it.

• Link to primary documents and original source material whenever practical.

• Represent technical documents, public records, research, and testimony accurately and in context.

• Make uncertainty clear rather than presenting incomplete information as settled fact.

Primary documents

Infrastructure reporting often involves applications, engineering reports, permits, environmental reviews, contracts, utility records, meeting testimony, public records, and other technical material. We believe readers should be able to inspect the evidence themselves whenever possible.

Institute reporting should:

• Identify the documents underlying important findings.

• Link to or provide source documents when legally and practically possible.

• Explain technical material in plain language without changing its meaning.

• Distinguish what a document actually says from a reporter's analysis of it.

• Identify significant limitations, assumptions, omissions, or unresolved questions when they are relevant to understanding the document.

Claims and evidence

A statement made by a developer, government official, advocacy organization, consultant, resident, company, or other interested party is a claim attributable to that source, not automatically an established fact. When accounts conflict, we seek evidence that can help readers understand the disagreement. We do not manufacture false balance when the available evidence supports one conclusion more strongly than another.

Fairness and response

People and organizations who are the subject of significant criticism or potentially damaging factual claims will ordinarily receive a meaningful opportunity to respond before publication. Their response, refusal to respond, or failure to respond by a reasonable deadline should be represented fairly when relevant. Fairness does not require giving every source equal weight. Evidence matters.

Independence and conflicts

Journalists will disclose financial, professional, personal, organizational, or other relationships that could reasonably create a significant conflict of interest or cause readers to question the independence of the reporting. The Institute does not allow advertisers, sponsors, donors, developers, government agencies, advocacy organizations, or other funders to dictate editorial conclusions. Funding relationships that are relevant to a particular piece of journalism will be disclosed.

Reporting, analysis and opinion

We distinguish factual reporting from commentary and opinion. Analysis may draw conclusions from documented evidence, but readers should be able to understand the evidence and reasoning supporting those conclusions. Opinion or commentary, when published, will be clearly identified.

Corrections

We correct factual errors promptly and transparently. Substantive corrections will explain what was wrong and what has been changed. We do not silently alter material facts in published journalism simply to make an error disappear. Minor spelling, grammar, formatting, or typographical changes that do not alter meaning generally do not require a correction notice. When Institute journalism has been republished through participating publications, we will make reasonable efforts to communicate substantive corrections so they can be corrected there as well.

Attribution and original reporting

Journalists retain recognition for their work. When NIELR publishes, republishes, excerpts, summarizes, or builds upon reporting originating with another journalist or publication, we clearly identify and credit the original source and link to the original publication whenever possible. The Institute exists to increase the reach and usefulness of local journalism, not erase its origin. This is the primary reason NIELR was created.

Photos, graphics and other media

We use photographs, illustrations, maps, charts, documents, audio, video, and other media only when we have the right to publish them or when their use is otherwise legally permissible. Images and graphics will not be materially altered in ways that mislead readers about what they depict. Illustrations, renderings, simulations, AI-generated imagery, and other non-documentary visuals will be clearly identified when a reader could reasonably mistake them for documentary evidence.

Artificial intelligence

AI tools may assist journalists with tasks such as transcription, document organization, data processing, research assistance, or editing.AI output is not a source. Material facts produced or surfaced through AI-assisted work must be verified against appropriate sources before publication. Journalists remain responsible for the accuracy, fairness, originality, and integrity of work published under their names. The Institute will not knowingly publish fabricated quotations, sources, documents, photographs, or evidence generated by AI.

Corrections, updates and developing stories

Infrastructure projects change. Applications are amended. Plans are revised. permits are issued. Testimony can clarify earlier information. We distinguish between:

• Corrections, when previously published information was wrong;

• Updates, when new information changes or expands what is known; and

• Revisions, when project documents or proposals themselves have changed.

Whenever practical, project pages should identify the date through which their information is current.

Humor

The National Institute for Extremely Large Rectangles takes rectangles extremely seriously. Humor is part of the Institute's voice, but it does not override our journalism. We do not use humor to demean affected residents, workers, sources, or communities, or to minimize environmental, financial, safety, infrastructure, or quality-of-life consequences. The joke may be the rectangle. The facts are not.

Why was this institute given such a weird name?

Because someday, somewhere, a reporter will be covering data centers and cite National Institute for Extremely Large Rectangles. I enjoy how ridiculous that sounds, which is a sure sign I need to go touch some grass.

—Jen Russell, Founder, Editor, and Chief Investigator of Extremely Large Rectangles

*Jen is also the Founder, Editor, and Warbler-in-Chief of The Woodbury Warbler, a hyperlocal newsroom covering local government and infrastructure across greater Gloucester County, New Jersey

Contact: [email protected]