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Trust · Editorial Standards

How we make what we publish.

One accountable editor, evidence-only sourcing, human fact-checking, and a plain policy on how AI is — and isn't — used.

Maintained by Rachel Julian, Founder & Editor-in-Chief · Effective July 17, 2026
Direct answer: Every editorial conclusion, ranking, and verdict here is a human judgment made and owned by editor-in-chief Rachel Julian. We score on published commitments only, verify every statistic against a resolving primary source, disclose sponsorship, and correct in public. AI may assist with drafting or research, but it never authors a conclusion, and no AI-touched fact is published without human verification.

Who is accountable?

One named person. Rachel Julian, founder and editor-in-chief, edits every word that publishes, owns every verdict, and answers for both. There is no anonymous masthead and no undisclosed committee. Accountability sits with a real, credentialed human whose record and contact are public.

How do we source and fact-check?

We score and cite on published commitments only — what a brand or provider states in writing, not what we assume or infer. Every factual claim is anchored to a real, resolving, primary or authoritative source. A statistic that cannot be confirmed on a source that actually loads does not get published, no matter how good it sounds. Fresh-looking numbers are often laundered through secondary blogs; we trace them to origin or drop them.

How do we use AI?

Plainly, because readers deserve to know:

  • AI does not author conclusions. Rankings, verdicts, scores, and recommendations are human judgments, made and owned by the editor. A model does not decide what is Sales-Ready or which trip is worth taking.
  • Where AI assists — drafting, formatting, summarizing, or surfacing research to check — a human edits the result and takes responsibility for it.
  • Every AI-touched fact is human-verified against a primary source before it publishes. No AI-generated statistic, quote, or citation is trusted on its own.
  • We never publish AI-generated images presented as real, fabricated reviews or testimonials, invented sources, or a synthetic person presented as a real contributor.

Independence, disclosure & corrections

A partnership buys reach, never a rating. Sponsored content is disclosed; commercial relationships never move a score, ranking, or conclusion, and a request to the contrary ends the relationship. When we get a fact wrong we fix it, label it a correction with a dated note, and log it — see the corrections ledger and the full scoring governance. Scored companies hold a verbatim right of reply on a published clock.

Read the rest of the trust stack: The Standard · Governance · Corrections · Legal & privacy · Masthead