Publishing principles

Guides and articles

1. Everything is reviewed before it's published. A person reads every submission and can approve it, ask for revisions, or decline it. No one publishes directly.
2. Authors are named. Every guide shows the author's name, role and organization, and links to their contributor profile when they have one.
3. Teach, don't pitch. Supplier experts are welcome, and often know a subject best. Their guides must teach the reader something useful, not sell a product or service.
4. Relationships are disclosed. If an author works for, or with, a company in the category they're writing about, the guide says so at the top.
5. Claims need support. Facts, figures and consequential recommendations should come from the author's direct experience or a cited source. We remove superlatives and unsupported claims.
6. Dates are shown. Every guide shows when it was published and when it was last meaningfully updated.
7. Corrections are welcome. If you spot an error in a guide, tell us and we'll review it.

How we use AI

We may use AI tools to help draft category guides, organize and tag content, check formatting, or summarize. We don't use AI to invent expertise, sources, contributors or experiences. Category guides are written as general teaching, and we welcome corrections from people who do this work. Guides credited to a contributor reflect that person's own knowledge and experience.

Directory listings

• Free listings, independent guides. Listing and claiming are free. Guides are written to teach, and no company can pay to shape what they say. Anything sponsored will always be clearly labeled.
• Researched from public information. Listings start from each company's own website: name, website, location, categories, service area and a one-sentence description written in our words. Each profile shows when it was last checked.
• Company-confirmed details are labeled. When a company claims its listing and we verify the claim, its profile is marked Verified, and details it supplied are labeled as provided by the company.
• Claims are checked. We confirm that the person claiming or changing a listing works for that company, usually by an email address at the company's own domain. One company can't claim another's listing.
• No reviews or ratings. We don't publish reviews, ratings, or claims about who a company works for.
• Removals are honored. Any company can ask to be removed, and we act within a few business days. See the listing policy.

Sponsorship and independence

If we offer sponsorship in the future, anything sponsored will be clearly labeled and kept separate from the standard listing order. Sponsors won't decide which companies are listed or what guides say.