Methodology

Our guides, glossary entries and, once the directory opens, our company pages are built from recorded facts. A fact is one claim, such as a rule, a rate or a company's minimum order, stored with where it came from and when. Pages cite facts; they do not restate them from memory. Pages about our own service, such as this one, describe our policies and cite no facts. This page explains how the facts work.

Where facts come from

For guides and glossary entries, we cite the body that sets the rule or publishes the figure: regulators, customs and trade agencies, standards bodies and the official pages of the programs we describe. A duty rate comes from the US government's own tariff schedule or trade notices. When a guide describes a company's own program, such as a platform's buyer protection terms, we cite that company's published terms, and only on that subject.

For the manufacturer directory, which is being built now, facts come from:

• certification bodies' public databases, for the certificates a company holds;
• government registries, for a company's legal registration and location;
• trade show exhibitor lists and industry directories, where their terms allow reuse;
• the company's own website, for what the company says it makes.

We never compile from sites whose terms forbid it. That rules out B2B trading platforms and the resellers of customs data, and we never use them as sources about manufacturers. The only thing we cite from a platform is its own published terms, when a guide describes that platform's program. The automated fetcher that will gather directory facts will read only sites on an approved list, follow each site's robots rules, and stop for good on any site that blocks it.

How each fact is recorded

Each fact is stored with:

• the source, and the exact passage we relied on;
• the source's own date, where it has one, such as a certificate's issue date or a page's last update;
• the date we checked it;
• how we know it, shown on the page: for example "company website (checked [date])", "listed in the issuer's database, checked [date]" or "stated by the company to us, [date]".

On guides, glossary entries and company pages, a number, a city or a manufacturer's name can appear only as a cited fact. A check that runs every time the site is built fails the build if such a page carries one that does not trace to a recorded fact, or cites a fact that has been replaced. There are two exceptions: worked examples, whose figures are labelled "Example" and "Illustrative figures, not a quote", and a fixed, reviewed list of names that contain numbers, such as Incoterms 2020, which are names of rules and standards, not measurements.

How fresh a fact must be

Each kind of fact has a freshness limit, measured from the source's own date, not from the day we fetched it. Rules, definitions and a platform's own terms are the exception: they stay current as long as we re-check them at least once a year. Duty rates have the shortest limit, because governments can change them at short notice. Company facts, such as capabilities and minimum orders, have a longer one, and a company needs at least one current fact from an independent source, such as a valid certificate or an active registry record, before it can appear in a list. A fact past its limit stays on the page with its date and a note that a re-check is pending, and it stops counting toward the page's minimum.

When a page may publish

Guides, glossary entries and pages about a product, a country or a category have a floor: a minimum number of distinct, sourced facts of their own that no sibling page repeats. A page below its floor is not published. A company page has its own floor, which includes at least one current fact from an independent source. Pages about our own service have no fact floor, but every one is audited before it publishes. A page that later drops below its floor keeps its address, shows which facts are stale, and goes to review. Pages about a product, a country or a category are compared with each other before they publish, so one page is never another with the names swapped.

How lists are ordered

When the directory opens, its lists of manufacturers will be ordered by the number of public sourced facts we hold for each company, then by name from A to Z. The basis will be printed beside every list. We do not sell placement. If we ever offer paid placement, it will be labelled as paid wherever it appears, and this page will say how it affects order.

How this site is made

• AI-assisted drafting. Pages are drafted with AI assistance, working only from the page's recorded facts, or for pages about our own service from our written policies, and from our wording rules.
• Every sourced figure traced. On guides, glossary entries and company pages, the build check above ties every number, city and manufacturer name to a dated fact.
• Company facts checked twice. Before any fact about a named company is shown, a second, independent automated check fetches the source again and records whether it still matches. A fact that does not match is not shown.
• Editorial audits. A reviewer that did not draft the page reads it against its facts before it publishes. Every hand-written page is audited; for pages built from a template, a sample is audited in each batch.
• Wording rules. We never describe a manufacturer as vetted, verified, certified or FDA approved in our own voice. We name a certificate only as the issuer's own record shows it, with the date we checked it. The editorial policy lists the rules in full.

Corrections

If a fact is wrong, tell us through the report an error page. A disputed fact about a company is suppressed while we check it, within 2 business days of the report, and a corrected fact replaces the old one on the page with its new source and date. The same page explains how a company or brand asks to be removed.