Editorial Standards

Independence

Mindiam is editorially independent. We accept no money or in-kind benefit in exchange for editorial coverage. Affiliate links earn a commission when readers purchase, but commissions never determine which products we cover, the angle of a review, or the verdict. Editors are not informed of commission rates when scoring a product.

Editorial decisions are made by the editorial team. The founder (Ben Rogers) reviews coverage of products that compete with Mindiam's own consulting services and recuses on direct conflicts.

Sourcing

We follow these rules on every editorial piece:

• Primary sources first. Regulator releases, company filings, peer-reviewed papers, parliamentary committee transcripts, and named on-the-record interviews are preferred over secondary reporting.
• Two sources for contested claims. Anything contested requires two independent sources. We mark single-sourced claims explicitly in the body.
• Anonymous sources rare and reasoned. Anonymous sources are used only when the source has direct knowledge, when public attribution would cause harm, and when the editor approves. See our ethics policy for the full process.
• External claims linked. Statistics, studies, and third-party assertions link out to the primary source. Inline links for assertion-level claims; numbered references for the article-level bibliography.

AI assistance

Mindiam uses generative AI tools (Claude, GPT, Gemini) as research and drafting assistants. Every piece is reviewed and approved by a named human editor before publication. We use AI for:

• First-draft outlines based on editorial briefs
• Summarising primary sources we've read
• Suggesting structure, headlines, and metadata
• Translating quoted material from non-English primary sources (always re-checked by a human against the original)
• Generating illustrative imagery (always disclosed inline as “AI-generated” in the caption)

We do not use AI for:

• Fabricating quotes, sources, or expert opinions
• Writing reviews of products without first-hand testing
• Generating statistics or data that we then present as primary research
• Final publication without human approval

When AI is used materially in a piece (e.g. an AI-generated comparison table from primary data we collected), we disclose it inline.

Fact-checking

Each editorial piece passes through three checks:

1. Author check. Author verifies every external claim against its source as they write.
2. Editor check. Editor independently verifies all numerical claims, all named-source quotes, and all regulatory citations.
3. Pre-publish review. Final review for AU-relevance, schema accuracy, affiliate disclosure compliance, and AI-disclosure compliance.

Reviews and ratings

Tool reviews involve direct, hands-on testing of the product for at least the time required to form a defensible opinion (typically 2–6 weeks of real use, longer for enterprise products). Ratings are on a 0–5 scale; we publish our scoring rubric inside each review.

We accept free trials or evaluation accounts from vendors when they offer them, but we do not accept paid reviews, sponsored placements framed as reviews, or pre-arranged scores.

Affiliate disclosure

Mindiam earns a commission when readers buy through affiliate links on this site. This is disclosed on every page that contains an affiliate link, immediately above the first link in plain English. Commissions do not influence editorial picks. See the full affiliate disclosure.

Updates and re-reviews

We re-review tools when there are major version changes, AU pricing changes, or new compliance-relevant features. The byline shows both the original publish date and the most recent update date.

Editorial team

Mindiam's editorial team is led by Ben Rogers, founder and editor-in-chief. See the full authors page for current contributors.

Corrections, complaints, and right of reply

We correct errors promptly and visibly. See the full corrections policy. Subjects of editorial coverage have a right of reply — contact hello@mindiam.com with the subject Right of reply: [piece title].

Verification & provenance

Where claims are independently fact-checked, we annotate the section with the verification date. Reader-flagged items follow the corrections process below.