These are the rules our team writes and edits by. They exist to protect you, the reader, and to keep our work honest as we grow. If anything we publish falls short of this standard, we want to hear about it — details on how to reach us are at the bottom of this page.
Accuracy Comes First
Every factual claim in a SepticJournal article should be traceable to a specific source. Statistics, regulatory statements, product specifications, and health or safety guidance require independent verification before publication. If we can't find a good source for something, we either cut the claim or explicitly flag it as an estimate.
Independence from Advertisers and Affiliate Partners
SepticJournal earns commissions when readers buy through affiliate links. Those commercial relationships are disclosed on our Affiliate Disclosure page and at the top of every review. To keep the wall between commerce and editorial intact, we hold ourselves to the following:
- No product, service, or company can pay to be included in a review, roundup, or ranking
- No advertiser or affiliate partner sees a review before it publishes
- Manufacturers cannot pre-approve content, request changes, or influence conclusions
- Commission rates are never a ranking factor. Rankings are set by our published methodology, which weights efficacy, customer outcomes, value, transparency, and convenience
- We publish critical coverage of products we earn commissions on when the evidence supports it
If a partnership arrangement ever appears to compromise these standards, the arrangement ends. There is no exception.
Sourcing Requirements
We rank sources by reliability and prefer the most authoritative available:
- Peer-reviewed academic research and university extension publications
- Federal and state regulatory guidance (EPA, USDA, state health departments)
- Industry-standard technical documents (NSF/ANSI, ASTM)
- Manufacturer specification sheets, safety data sheets, and formal disclosures
- Aggregated verified-purchase customer feedback across multiple retailers
- Reporting from established, editorially independent publications
Anonymous forum posts, single reviews, and press releases are treated as leads to investigate, not as sources.
How We Handle AI
We use AI tools during research — for organizing data, summarizing long documents, cross-checking claims, and drafting outlines. Every published article is reviewed and materially edited by a human editor before publication. Any statistic, quote, or product specification generated by an AI tool is verified against a primary source before it makes it into an article.
AI does not, on its own, decide what we recommend.
Corrections and Updates
We make mistakes. When we do, we correct them promptly and transparently.
- Minor corrections (typos, formatting) are fixed silently
- Material corrections (factual errors, updated pricing, changed rankings) are noted with a dated update log at the top of the affected article
- Significant retractions — a review being pulled entirely or a top pick being demoted after new evidence — get their own note on this page in the Corrections Log below
If you spot something wrong, please tell us via our contact page. We respond to every correction request within five business days, whether or not we ultimately agree with your reading.
What We Won't Publish
- Reviews of products we haven't researched to the standard set in our methodology
- Claims about health or safety without a credible source
- Rankings that we believe are wrong, no matter how much traffic or revenue the alternative would earn
- Sponsored content disguised as editorial
- Personal information about any reader who contacts us, without their explicit permission
Reader Privacy
Emails, messages, and any personal information you share with us stay private. We do not sell, share, or publish reader data. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.
Corrections Log
This log will list significant corrections and retractions as they occur. It is currently empty because SepticJournal has just launched. New entries will be added at the top with the date, the affected article, and a summary of the change.
Reach the Editors
Corrections, concerns about our editorial process, or press inquiries — please use our contact page. All correction requests are read by an editor, not filtered by staff.