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Jobsearch.ing

Standards

Editorial Policy

What this publication will and will not do, written to be held to rather than to be seen holding.

Published

Most editorial policies are written for search engines. This one exists because the whole proposition of Jobsearch.ing is that a reader can check what it tells them, and that only means something if the standard is specific enough to fail.

Accuracy

Every consequential factual claim is traceable to a source a reader can open. Where a claim is an inference rather than a finding, it is written as one. Where a figure is derived rather than measured, the derivation is shown.

Precision is matched to evidence. A study of several hundred people does not support a claim about “job seekers”. One platform’s data does not support a claim about the market.

What is never done

  • Fabricate a statistic, study, citation, quote, sample size, methodology, survey, benchmark, or case study.
  • Write “research shows”, “studies prove”, or “experts say” without research, studies, or an expert a reader can identify.
  • Turn qualitative evidence into a quantitative claim, or a single platform's data into a market-wide fact.
  • Manufacture certainty from conflicting evidence, or average incompatible figures into one clean number.
  • Invent an author, a credential, a reviewer, an award, or a team member.
  • Publish social proof, ratings, or review counts that do not exist.
  • Change a conclusion because of a commercial relationship, or leave such a relationship undisclosed.

Several of these are enforced mechanically as well as editorially. Page metadata containing an unsupported promise, a data page missing its population or methodology, a source record without a publisher or access date, or an internal link to a page that does not exist will fail the production build rather than reaching a reader.

Sourcing

Sources are ranked by proximity to the thing being measured, and the full hierarchy is set out in the methodology. In short: primary evidence first, secondary analysis only when nothing better exists and always labelled as such, and community discussion never as statistical evidence.

Every source record carries its publisher, publication date, access date, and the specific finding it supports — plus, where it matters, an explicit note of what it does not support.

Uncertainty and disagreement

When the evidence is weak, the page says the evidence is weak. When credible sources disagree, the disagreement is presented and explained. When a question cannot currently be answered well, that is the answer.

This is treated as a feature of the publication rather than an embarrassment. A reader who learns that a widely repeated number has no solid basis has learned something more useful than the number.

Separating evidence from opinion

Editorial judgement is part of the value here — which questions matter, how to interpret a finding, what to do about it. It is labelled as judgement. Analysis produced by Jobsearch.ing is visually and verbally distinguished from findings reported by someone else, so a reader always knows whose claim they are reading.

Corrections

Corrections are made promptly and left visible. A material correction — one that changes what a reader would conclude — carries a dated note on the page describing the error and the change. Minor fixes to spelling or formatting are made silently and do not change the page’s updated date.

A page whose central claim turns out to be unsupportable is withdrawn or rewritten, not quietly softened.

Conflicts of interest and commercial disclosure

Jobsearch.ing currently has no advertisers, sponsors, affiliate relationships, or commercial arrangements of any kind. There is nothing to disclose at present.

If that changes, the rules are fixed in advance: any ownership, financial, or affiliate relationship with a product mentioned on a page is disclosed on that page, prominently, not in a footer. A commercial relationship never changes a conclusion, never changes a ranking, and never buys a place in a comparison. Competitors are allowed to win, including against products Jobsearch.ing has an interest in.

Use of automation and AI

AI assistance is used for drafting, editing, structuring, source organisation, and building this site. It is not used as a source of fact, is not used to generate citations, and is not used to mass-produce pages.

No page is published on the strength of a model asserting something is true. Every factual claim traces to a document that was located and read by a person.

Updating content

Pages are updated when the underlying facts change, when better evidence becomes available, or when a source is superseded — not on a schedule designed to signal freshness. Dates reflect real events.

Reader data

The tools on this site collect nothing. Inputs stay in the browser. Tool usage will never be reinterpreted as research data; any future data collection will be a separate, explicitly consented process with its own published plan.

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