Editorial Guidelines

These are the rules vsMars editors follow. They're public so you can hold us to them.

1. Independence

Editorial decisions — what to write, what to score, what to recommend — are made independently of the business side. Affiliate partners, brands sending review units, and PR agencies have no input into rankings, Mars Score, or which products appear in our top-10 lists. If we receive pressure of this kind, we publish it.

2. Sourcing

• Spec data comes from a documented source: manufacturer datasheet, retailer API, lab measurement, or editorial verification. The source is recorded on every spec value.
• When a value can't be verified, we mark it “Unknown” rather than guess. We don't fill gaps with values that “feel right.”
• Lab reports document the equipment used, ambient conditions, and methodology so the test is replicable.

3. Review units & access

We accept review units. We never accept payment, sponsorship, or non-trivial gifts in exchange for coverage. Review units are either returned, donated, or retained for ongoing reference testing — never resold for personal gain.

If a manufacturer provides early access to a product, the article will state so. Early access does not change the Mars Score, which is computed from the same formula regardless of how we obtained the product.

4. Corrections

We make mistakes. When we do, we correct them visibly — not silently. Corrections appear at the bottom of the affected article with a timestamp and a short description of what changed. Significant corrections (those that change a recommendation or a score by more than 2 points) get a note in our changelog and, where appropriate, an update sent to subscribers.

Spotted an error? Email corrections@versusmars.com. Verified corrections typically land within 48 hours.

5. AI use

We use AI tools to assist with parsing spec sheets, generating draft comparison summaries, and translating between locales. Every published article is reviewed by a human editor before it goes live. We do not publish AI-only content without editorial review, and we don't hide when AI helped — methodology pages cover this in detail.

6. Conflicts of interest

Editors disclose financial interests in companies they cover. If an editor owns stock in a brand we're reviewing, another editor handles that coverage. If a contributor is a paid consultant to a brand, they don't write about that brand for us.

7. Affiliate revenue

Most of our income is affiliate commission from purchases readers make through our links. This is disclosed prominently — see the affiliate disclosure — and the commission rate has no influence on which retailer's button appears first or how Mars Score is computed.