The Daily Trickle.

Where a document stands

Proposed

A draft rule. It does not bind anyone yet, and the public can comment until the deadline shown. A UK draft statutory instrument has no comment period: Parliament approves or rejects it.

Early stage: advance notice

The agency is asking for ideas before it writes a draft rule.

Final rule

Adopted (for a UK statutory instrument, made). "Effective" gives the day it starts to apply; when there is none, the rule starts on a date set in its text, or in stages.

In effect

A final rule whose effective date has passed.

Temporary rule

An emergency or temporary rule. It lapses unless the agency makes it permanent.

Withdrawn

The agency dropped a proposal.

Finding issued

A formal decision on a petition or a question, such as whether a species needs protection.

Peer-reviewed study

Research published in a journal after independent experts reviewed it.

Preprint, not peer-reviewed

Research the authors posted before review. Its findings may change or not hold up.

Announcement

A research institution's own news about its work, from a short list of widely trusted institutions. It links the paper when there is one.

Final report

A published investigation or surveillance report, such as the CDC's weekly reports on outbreaks and injuries.

How a lead is scored

Trickle score

0 to 100. It rises with impact and with how little the news has covered the lead, so quiet, important leads come first. A paler score has no coverage count yet and rests on impact alone.

Impact

How many people it affects and how much, from None to Sweeping. A model's judgment, checked against hand labels.

Interest

How surprising or useful it is to a general reader, from Dull to Remarkable. Also a model's judgment. Shown for reference: it is not part of the Trickle score until it has been checked against hand labels.

Coverage: how much the news has said

Coverage counts come from Media Cloud, an open-source platform for media research. We show only the number of matching stories (US national news for federal actions and for research, the state's own state and local news for state actions), never the stories themselves. UK actions are not counted yet.

Silent

We counted, and no news story mentions it: in US national news for a federal action or research, in that state's state and local news for a state action.

Quiet, Some, Loud

Fewer than 10, 10 to 99, and 100 or more stories. "So far" means the count is still open: we count stories from a week before a document comes out to two weeks after, and the count is final on day 16.

Not counted yet

A new lead is counted within about an hour of being published, then again on a schedule while its count is open.

Search unreliable

The document's own terms have never appeared in the news, and a plain-words search found stories that may be about something else (or there was no plain-words search to try). We can't tell silence from coverage in other words, so the score leaves coverage out.

State news not counted

California and Oregon rules are counted in that state's own state and local news. Other states aren't counted yet.

Country news not counted

A rule from outside the United States, such as a UK statutory instrument, would be covered in its own country's news, and we don't count that yet. US news is the wrong place to look, so its score rests on impact alone.

Not counted yet: research

Coverage of research, preprints and announcements is counted in US national news soon after publication (experimental: not yet checked against an independent search). This label shows until the first count.