Editorial policy

Tiered reviewer policy

Every page is assigned a tier based on its content type. The tier determines which credentialed reviewer must sign off before publish.

• Tier 1 — Author-only: Tool comparisons, infrastructure pages, definitional content with no medical or veterinary claims. Reviewed by the editorial team.
• Tier 2 — Medical reviewer: Articles that mention symptoms, diseases (Lyme, anaplasmosis, Powassan, etc.), or clinician-routing language. Requires sign-off from a credentialed medical reviewer (MD, DO, NP, or PA) before publish.
• Tier 3 — Veterinary reviewer (DVM): Pet pages with safety guidance. Requires sign-off from a DVM.
• Tier 4 — Entomology reviewer: Species ID, range, habitat, seasonality, and map claims. Requires sign-off from an entomologist, or fallback citation from at least 2 extension / CDC / state-health sources.

Pages awaiting their required reviewer are kept in a locked-preview state: the body content is fully written but visually gated, and the page is set to noindex. Email-capture is the only call-to-action available on locked-preview pages.

Source hierarchy

Sources are prioritized in this order:

1. CDC, FDA, EPA, USDA, NIH.
2. State health departments, state veterinary boards, university extension publications.
3. Peer-reviewed literature.
4. Manufacturer labels for product-specific facts (active ingredients, age limits, contraindications).
5. Reputable veterinary references (Merck Veterinary Manual, VCA Hospitals, Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine).

Sources are cited inline throughout each article and listed at the bottom in a numbered sources block. Anonymous social posts, forum claims, and low-quality affiliate sites are not used as sources.

Refresh cadence

Pages are reviewed and refreshed on the following cadence:

• Money pages (product comparisons): quarterly review.
• State guides: annual review before peak tick season, or whenever the state's primary source materially updates.
• Species ID and removal pages: annual review.
• Disease context pages: annual review by the medical reviewer.
• Pet preventive pages: refreshed whenever an FDA advisory, product recall, or label change applies.

Every published page surfaces a "Last reviewed" date in the byline block.

Separation of editorial from revenue

Affiliate links never appear in disease, symptom, emergency, pediatric, pregnancy, veterinary-warning, or FDA-advisory copy. See the affiliate disclosure for the full structural enforcement. Editorial decisions about what to cover, how to phrase safety guidance, and which products to recommend are not influenced by affiliate program rates or merchant relationships.

Bylines

Every page carries a named byline. The Tick Almanac uses an editorial team byline (Tick Almanac Editorial) for collaboratively written staff content, with the credentialed reviewer's name and credentials appearing alongside the editorial credit once the reviewer signs off. We do not invent fake personas or attach fabricated credentials. See the editorial team page for our transparency note on this.

Tick Watch / Latest Updates

The Latest Updates section on the homepage is a curated index of changes to CDC, FDA, EPA, state health, university extension, and manufacturer recall sources. Items are reviewed by the editorial team before publish. The Latest Updates section never carries affiliate links. A more complete Tick Watch hub is planned for a future phase.

Corrections

If you find an error — sourcing, fact, safety guidance, or anything else — please tell us at contact. Corrections are noted with an updated "Last updated" date in the byline; material safety corrections are noted at the top of the affected page.