Editorial Standards

The honesty rule

Every "we" claim (every "we shopped", "we priced", "we verified") requires a research artifact in our internal /research/ directory. If we can't point to the source, the claim gets cut. This applies to pricing data, claims about retailer behavior, comparisons between brands, and any other empirical assertion.

Source requirements

• Long-form posts (buying guides): Minimum 3 cited sources. Every stat carries a source link. The byline shows the source count.
• FAQ entries ("/answers"): Minimum 1 source where applicable. Many FAQ entries are framework-based ("how to think about X") and don't require external citation, but any factual claim does.
• Tool result pages (calculator output, visualizer settings, etc.): Cite the underlying data assumption. The Budget Calculator's tier-recommendation pricing comes from retailer pages dated in the methodology footer.
• Sources we trust: GIA, AGS legacy reports, FTC publications, The Knot Jewelry & Engagement Study, JCK trade press, direct retailer pages, academic / professional literature.
• Sources we don't cite: Generic AI summaries of unverified information, retailer marketing copy, social media claims without primary verification.

Retailer disclosure

• Any retailer mentioned by name in a comparison context has been shopped (we loaded their pages and priced inventory at publication time).
• Affiliate links are tagged in our backend and disclosed on every page that contains them. See affiliate disclosure for the full position.
• If a retailer pays a higher commission than competitors, that fact does not influence ranking. Where we make a price-based recommendation, the actual price determines the recommendation.
• We do not accept "guest posts", sponsored placements, or paid coverage disguised as editorial. If we ever do paid editorial, it will be labeled "Sponsored" in 16pt at the top of the page and excluded from comparison-based recommendations.

AI transparency

We use AI tooling for research synthesis, first-draft assistance, image generation, and code generation. Every published piece is reviewed, edited, and signed off by a human editor. Specifically:

• AI-drafted body content passes through human editorial review that fact-checks every claim, removes hallucinations, rewrites for voice. We do not publish raw AI output.
• AI-generated images are used for editorial illustrations: still-life ring photography, schematic diagrams, infographics. We never represent AI imagery as actual product photography from a real ring we own. AI imagery is captioned or placed in context that makes the editorial nature clear, and the about page states the same position.
• What we do NOT use AI for: Generating false pricing data, fake reviews, fabricated retailer comparisons, simulated user testimonials.
• Disclosure rule: If a specific piece of content was substantially AI-assisted in ways the reader should know about, that piece will say so. Routine AI-assisted research (helping us find sources, summarize industry reports, etc.) is not separately disclosed.

Corrections policy

We update content when we're wrong. Specifically:

• Factual errors get corrected within 48 hours of being reported, with a visible "Corrected on [date]" line at the top of the affected section.
• Price drift (prices change quarterly) gets re-verified on a rolling basis; we update the "last reviewed" date on every refresh.
• Outdated recommendations (a retailer changes their return policy, a brand discontinues a product line) get fixed when we learn about them. We don't pretend old recommendations aged better than they did.
• To report an error: editor@jeweleditor.com. We respond within 7 days. We credit the source of any correction that ships.

What we won't publish

• Made-up statistics with no source.
• Recommendations that would put a reader into debt they can't support.
• The "3-month salary rule" (1939 De Beers ad copy, not financial advice).
• Sponsored content disguised as editorial.
• AI-generated images representing themselves as real product photography.
• Manipulative urgency language ("buy now", "limited time", countdown timers).
• Fake testimonials, fake reviews, or any synthesized user voice presented as real.

Related

See also: methodology (how the calculator works, what we test, where the data comes from), affiliate disclosure (how we make money), privacy policy (what data we collect), about JewelEditor.