Just Facts is a research and educational institute dedicated to publishing facts about public policies and teaching research skills. To accomplish this with excellence, we use exacting Standards of Credibility to determine what constitutes a fact and what does not.
The vision of Just Facts is to equip as many people as possible with facts that empower them to make truly informed decisions. This means facts that accurately and fully convey reality—not pseudo-facts, half-truths, or talking points.
Research from Just Facts has been cited by a diverse array of prominent and scholarly organizations and individuals. A sample of these includes:
media outlets, such as CBS, PBS, Fox News, Yahoo News, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, CNBC, Forbes, Psychology Today, and Roll Call.
educational institutions, such as Pepperdine University, Rice University, West Virginia University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Texas, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Washington.
academic publishers, such as Gale Cengage Learning, Johns Hopkins University Press, Encyclopedia Britannica, Routledge, Elsevier Health Sciences, and McGraw Hill Professional.
government entities, such as the Oklahoma Department of Labor, the Detroit City Council, the Alabama Department of Education, the Utah State Board of Education, and the education ministry of Northern Ireland.
peer-reviewed journals, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, Critical Education, and the International Journal of Sciences.
think tanks, such as the Hoover Institution, the National Tax Association, the Pacific Research Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the California Policy Center, and Instituto Liberdade (Brazil).
political and advocacy groups, such as the Liberal Democratic Party of Australia, the Children’s Advocacy Institute, Doctors for Life International, and the Washington State Education Association.
commentators, such as Ph.D. economist Walter Williams, Rush Limbaugh, Constitutional attorney Mark Levin, and meteorologist Joe Bastardi.
associations and corporations, such as the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Harvard Graduate Council, IBM Corporation, and the American Nurses Association.
Furthermore, millions of students, voters, businesspeople, and researchers from more than 150 countries have directly accessed the research on our website. Many of them—from high school students to Ph.D. scientists—have sent us notes of appreciation that express the value of our work to them.
Just Facts carries out eight initiatives to educate people about current issues, debunk common misinformation, and teach vital research skills.
We publish these facts in many venues and post them on a daily basis to social media, but these tech platforms typically show each post to a small fraction of our followers.
So if you want to reliably receive the latest facts, sign up for our weekly email.
To bring you facts that are trustworthy, Just Facts adheres to Standards of Credibility that we have developed and refined over decades. These are the hallmarks that separate our research from typical news reports and policy analyses:
1) Comprehensiveness: It is very easy to distort reality by selecting facts that align with certain views while ignoring others. Just Facts rejects such reporting and seeks to present the whole truth—because half the truth can amount to a total lie.
2) Primary Sources: Just Facts makes extraordinary efforts to identify and use highly credible primary sources instead of secondary ones. This is because secondary sources often reflect someone’s interpretation of the facts instead of the actual facts. Moreover, such sources sometimes fail to mention important caveats revealed by the original sources.
3) Rigorous Documentation: Just Facts documents the facts we publish far more thoroughly than academic standards require. In addition to footnoting every fact with creditable sources, our core research also provides exact quotations or data from these sources. This allows readers to quickly verify that we accurately represent them. Simply put, we provide complete and convenient transparency for every fact.
4) Raw Data: Within reasonable constraints of time, Just Facts strives to present data in its rawest comprehensible form. This serves as a safeguard against data that has been corrupted by errors, mischaracterizations, or statistical manipulation. By providing straightforward data, Just Facts curbs and unmasks the methodological trickery that plagues policy debates.
5) Verification: Just Facts regularly uses different sources, methodologies, and calculations to double-check our work. This limits the types of human errors that led NASA to lose a Mars Climate Orbiter because they mixed up metric and English units when coding the software for the mission. Where we find small discrepancies, Just Facts gives preference to figures that are contrary to our viewpoints and uses the most cautious plausible interpretations of the data.
6) Clarity: Just Facts uses language that is precise and unambiguous in order to minimize the potential for misinterpretation. In George Orwell’s famed essay, “Politics and the English Language,” he criticized people who use words “in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.” Just Facts pledges to never do this and to expose those who do.
7) Balance: Our goal is comprehensive accuracy, not the illusion of balance. This distinguishes us from publications that present brief quotes from people on opposing sides of an issue. That practice can be highly misleading because:
In stark contrast, Just Facts does not provide a platform for propaganda or token displays of balance. Instead, we supply thorough, verifiable facts.
If you’d like to learn the skills to conduct quality research or teach others to do the same, we have developed an initiative called Just Facts Academy. Through entertaining videos and printable handouts, this resource can teach almost anyone how to “research like a genius.”
To get started, go to justfactsacademy.org.
Just Facts is passionate about finding the facts and making them known. Thus, we work diligently to ensure that our research is scrupulous. If, however, you should ever find an error or feel that we have missed a critical fact that alters the implications of any matter we have addressed, contact us, and we promise to make it right.
We strive for continuous improvement and welcome critique, but we do not have time to reiterate what we have already written or to investigate unsupported claims. Hence, be certain to carefully read our research and substantiate any assertions you make with explicit quotations or data from credible, primary sources.
Just Facts is a research and educational institute that began as a website in 1997 and was formalized as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 2007.
James D. Agresti, the president and cofounder of Just Facts, has more than two decades of experience in public policy research and analysis. His work has been cited by a broad range of media outlets, academic publications, and Ph.D. scholars. He holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Brown University and utilizes his background in the physical sciences to apply practical, empirical approaches to the often capricious world of public policy.
Stephen F. Cardone, the chairman of Just Facts’ board of directors, holds a bachelor of science in psychology from Brown University and has 30+ years of private industry experience in corporate management, operations, logistics, accounting, and customer service. Just Facts’ other board members, employees, contractors, and volunteers are all an integral part of our organization.
Nearly everyone has personal political views, especially those involved in policy research and journalism. We think people in these fields should disclose this information so the public has some insight to their mindsets. Nevertheless, many refuse to do so and portray this lack of transparency as a sign of neutrality. As is the case with any thoughtful group of people, the staff and board members of Just Facts have some varying opinions, but we predominantly subscribe to these defining principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence:
In other words, we are conservative/libertarian in our personal views—but unlike many policy and media organizations—Just Facts is devoted to objectivity, and we do not favor facts that support our viewpoints. Instead, we will report any fact that meets our Standards of Credibility, regardless of the implications.
While today’s news media can be entertaining, ask
yourself, “Does it give me the information I need to
make quality decisions in my life and in the voting
booth?”
Make the effort to gather credible facts and ponder
their implications. Your views and your vote impact
not only your life but the people and world around
you. Refuse to allow misinformation, preconceived
notions, or other’s opinions to manipulate you.
Instead, form your views with broad knowledge and
serious thought.
Producing quality research takes time and money. Please help us shift public opinion to reflect reality by making a secure tax-deductible contribution today.
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Just Facts is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, and contributions are tax deductible within the full extent of the law. We respect the time and privacy of our donors. Just Facts will not sell or share your name, email, or any other personal information about you unless required by law. For a refreshing contrast to the norm, check out our short and clear-cut privacy policy