vital-scans open quality ledger

nih.gov: Readability — week 2026-W38

Plain-language metrics for the main content of each scanned page (navigation, header, and footer excluded). Download CSV.

What these mean

Words per page
Main-content word count. Median 777
Reading ease (Flesch)
0–100; higher is easier. ~60+ is plain language; below ~30 is very hard. Median 42.6
Grade level (Flesch-Kincaid)
US school grade needed to read it; aim for ~8 or lower for the public. Median 12.5
Scored
A reading grade is only meaningful on running prose, so we score a page only when it has enough of it. Pages that are mostly links or cards (too little text) or mostly tables and data (not prose) are left unscored — a grade there would be misleading, no matter how many words they contain. 7 of 8 scored

Heuristics for triage and trends, not authoritative linguistics. They flag pages worth a human plain-language review.

Per-page readability

Readability per scanned page (2026-W38). — click a column heading to sort
/news-events/nih-research-matters/understanding-exceptional-responders-cancer-treatment67343.212.5yes
/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-psychedelic-drugs-may-help-depression79843.412.9yes
/news-events/nih-research-matters/financial-problems-can-be-sign-dementia-onset70342.412.6yes
/news-events/nih-research-matters/eating-highly-processed-foods-linked-weight-gain80656.811.1yes
/news-events/news-releases/dr-jonathan-m-green-selected-ceo-nih-clinical-center75642.611.6yes
/about-nih/nih-almanac/michael-gottesman-md53039.312.5yes
/news-events/nih-research-matters/microbiome-transplants-may-curb-food-allergies81442.213yes
/heal/award-policy/data-sharing-policy/common-data-elements-cdes-repository1633n/an/anot prose (tables/data)

Unexplained acronyms

Acronyms used without an on-page expansion (e.g. "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)"), by pages affected. Download: CSV · JSON.

Possible misspellings

Main-content words not found in the dictionary or the project allowlist, by pages affected. Government and medical jargon may be false positives — add real terms to config/spelling-allowlist.txt. Download: CSV · JSON.