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Editorial standards

Editorial Policy

This policy explains how Dr. Coffee approaches reviews, buying guides and comparisons: what separates our editorial judgment from our commercial relationships, how we label the evidence behind a score, and how affiliate links are disclosed.

Short version: every review is labeled Research Reviewed, Hands-On Tested, or Not Yet Rated before you see a score, and that evidence label is separate from any editorial score, visitor rating or buying-guide pick. Where affiliate links are live on a given page, they may earn us a commission; they do not decide what we recommend. Several practices below — including affiliate program enrollment, AI assistance, and any visitor-review system — are marked as proposed, partial or pending confirmation rather than described as fully active today.

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1. Purpose & scope

Dr. Coffee is an independent coffee equipment review, comparison and affiliate publication. This policy covers everything we publish that forms an opinion or a recommendation: product reviews, buying guides, comparison pages, the Coffee Finder tool, and educational or explanatory articles. It does not replace our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, or Affiliate Disclosure, which cover data handling, site usage and commission relationships in more detail.

This policy describes our intended editorial practices. It is not a guarantee of specific outcomes, and it does not create a contract between Dr. Coffee and any reader, manufacturer or retailer.

2. Editorial independence

Our goal is for product recommendations, scores and rankings to reflect our editorial assessment of a product — not whether a manufacturer advertises with us, whether a retailer pays a commission, or how a brand responds to our requests for information. A commercial relationship with a brand or retailer is not intended to change a score or a recommendation.

We have not implemented a formal review committee, an independence audit, a published conflict-of-interest register, or a documented separation between editorial and commercial staffing, and we do not claim to have done so. These are editorial principles we intend to follow, not a certified, audited or organizationally guaranteed system, and we will describe any such safeguards here only once they are actually in place.

3. Accuracy & source standards

We aim to base factual claims — dimensions, wattage, pressure, capacity and similar specifications — on manufacturer documentation, publicly available technical data, or our own measurements when we have hands-on tested a product. Where a claim depends on a manufacturer's own marketing language (for example, "barista-quality" or "professional-grade"), we try to say so rather than presenting it as independently verified.

We do not promise that every statement on the site has been independently tested or is free of error. Specifications change between production runs, manufacturers update firmware and designs, and prices shift daily. If you spot something that looks outdated or wrong, see Section 9, Corrections & updates.

4. Reviews, scores & rankings

Our review and scoring methodology is described in full in How We Test & Review Coffee Equipment; this section summarizes it and this policy defers to that page for methodology detail. Dr. Coffee uses four distinct, non-interchangeable labels. An evidence status tells you how a piece was produced; it is separate from any numeric score, from a visitor rating, and from a buying-guide selection:

  • Research Reviewed (evidence status) — based on specifications, documentation and published sources, without hands-on testing by our team.
  • Hands-On Tested (evidence status) — based on a product we have used ourselves, following the evaluation criteria described in How We Test.
  • Editorial Scores (a separate output) — the weighted numeric scores we assign on top of a Research Reviewed or Hands-On Tested piece; the score reflects our evaluation criteria, not the evidence label itself.
  • Visitor Ratings (a separate, reader-sourced input) — ratings submitted by readers, where a visitor-review system is live; see Section 8, since this feature is currently conditional.
  • Buying Guide Recommendations (a separate, curated selection) — picks assembled for a specific buying-guide format, which may draw on either Research Reviewed or Hands-On Tested products and are not themselves an evidence label.

We do not fabricate measurements, test results or consumer reviews, and we do not describe a product as hands-on tested unless we have documented evidence that it was. Where a category's testing protocol is still being developed, we label it as proposed or pending rather than presenting it as an active practice.

5. Affiliate relationships & advertising

Affiliate commissions are part of Dr. Coffee's intended business model: where a link to a retailer is affiliate-enabled, following it and making a purchase may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. Not every outbound link on the site is necessarily part of a live affiliate program yet, and we do not claim that affiliate participation is fully implemented site-wide at this stage; program enrollment is confirmed and added on a per-retailer basis. Current and planned commercial relationships are addressed in more detail in our Affiliate Disclosure.

We may, now or in the future, receive free or discounted review units, sponsorships, or paid placements. We do not claim that Dr. Coffee never accepts these, and we do not claim that every page already carries a finished disclosure treatment. Our policy is that a clear, page-level disclosure should appear close to any live affiliate link or sponsored content, with advertising visually distinguished from editorial content; a link to this Editorial Policy alone is not a substitute for that page-level disclosure.

6. AI-assisted editorial work

Our editorial process may use AI tools to assist with research, drafting, editing or formatting. This section is conditional pending operational confirmation: we have not yet finalized or published the specific scope of that assistance, so we do not claim that all content on Dr. Coffee is entirely human-written, nor that every AI-assisted statement has been independently human-verified.

What we can say now: AI assistance, where used, does not extend to inventing product tests that were not performed, fabricating citations, or presenting fictional experts or interviews as real. Any claim of hands-on testing on this site reflects testing that was, to our knowledge, actually carried out. We will update this section with specifics once our AI-use practices are finalized and confirmed.

7. Product samples & conflicts of interest

When a reviewer receives a product sample, press access, or any other item of value connected to a review, we aim to disclose that on the relevant page. We have not established a formal conflict-of-interest register or a standardized sample-return policy, and we do not describe one as currently in place; this is an area we expect to formalize as our review volume grows, and this section will be updated once it is.

8. Consumer reviews & testimonials

This section is conditional: Dr. Coffee does not currently operate an active, ongoing visitor-review or testimonial platform. Before any such feature launches, we need to have operationally established — not merely stated as intent — authenticity safeguards against fake or manipulated reviews, clear disclosure of any incentive offered in exchange for a review, and a moderation process, with attention to the review-authenticity and incentive-disclosure expectations under US, Canadian, EU and UK rules referenced in our legal review notes. Until that is built and confirmed, we do not label any review as a "verified purchase," and any reference elsewhere on the site to "Visitor Ratings" describes a planned feature, not current functionality, unless a specific page states otherwise.

9. Corrections & updates

If you believe something we've published is factually incorrect, out of date, or missing important context, you can reach us using the contact details in Section 11. Our policy is to review correction requests and update articles when a correction is warranted. We do not commit to a specific response time or a fixed review schedule for existing content, since this depends on the nature of the issue and our current operational capacity; we aim to handle reports promptly and in good faith.

11. Reader contact

For correction requests, editorial questions, or complaints about something we've published, contact us at [editorial contact email — to be confirmed]. For legal or business inquiries, see our Contact page. Company and legal-entity details referenced across our policies are placeholders pending confirmation of our registered business information.

12. Policy date & changes

Effective date: [to be confirmed before publication]. Last updated: [to be confirmed before publication]. We may revise this policy as our practices evolve; material changes will be reflected by updating the date above.