Trust & Governance
Editorial Standards
These standards are binding on everything CRI publishes. If a page fails them, it does not ship — and if you find a page that fails them, we want to know.
Effective and last reviewed:
1. Sourcing
- Every factual claim must trace to a verifiable source: standards bodies (e.g., NRCA, ASTM, FM Approvals, UL), building codes, peer-reviewed research, manufacturer technical data, government data, or CRI’s own published datasets.
- Marketing materials are not acceptable sources for performance claims.
- Sources are cited on the page. If we cannot source a claim, we do not publish it.
2. Review
- No page is published until it clears review for factual accuracy, completeness, and clarity.
- Technical pages must clear subject-matter review by a qualified reviewer before their review status clears — pages still awaiting that review say so on the page.
- Every page displays its last-reviewed date and is re-reviewed on a scheduled cycle (annually at minimum; sooner when codes, standards, or evidence change).
3. Independence
- No advertiser, contractor, manufacturer, or referral partner reviews, approves, or influences editorial content before publication.
- Editorial staff compensation is never tied to referral revenue.
- Products and companies are named only where evidence supports it, and comparisons follow the published Methodology.
4. Uncertainty and limitations
- Where evidence is mixed, condition-dependent, or evolving, the page must say so explicitly.
- Tools and datasets state their assumptions, coverage, and limitations alongside their outputs.
- CRI content is educational. It is not engineering, legal, or insurance advice, and pages remind readers where professional judgment is required.
5. Use of AI
- AI systems may assist with drafting, structuring, and consistency checking.
- No AI-generated claim is published without human verification against the sourcing standard above.
- The CRI AI Assistant answers only from approved, published CRI sources and discloses gaps rather than improvising.
6. Corrections
Errors are corrected promptly and transparently under our Corrections policy. Material corrections are noted on the page itself.