Editorial Policy
Editorial policy for World Ranking Forum: how we research, write, fund and correct what we publish, including independence and conflicts of interest.
1. Independence
Listings and shortlists are decided by our editorial process alone. Agencies cannot pay to be listed, to be placed higher, to remove a competitor or to edit their own profile text. Anyone who offers payment for any of these is removed from the directory.
2. How we fund the site
World Ranking Forum is self-funded. We do not take money from the agencies we list. Any future revenue, such as research reports, will be kept separate from the shortlisting process, and the people involved in selling will have no say in shortlists.
3. How we choose agencies
We read each agency’s public evidence against four questions: delivery track record, verified credentials, capability depth and engagement transparency. Each category has a shortlist of four agencies, and the order is not a ranking. Where we could not confirm something it is marked “Not stated”, and company-reported figures are labelled. The full process and what removes an agency are on our methodology page.
4. How we write news
- We select stories that affect how businesses buy software and services.
- We read the original source and summarise it in our own words. We do not republish other publishers’ articles.
- Every story links to its original source and names it.
- We say when research was commissioned by a company with a commercial interest, and when we are working from an abstract rather than the full report.
- Each story adds a short “why it matters for buyers” section, which is our analysis and is labelled as such.
5. Use of AI
We may use AI tools to help draft, summarise or check content. A human editor reviews every shortlist and every published page and is responsible for its accuracy. AI tools are never used to invent facts, sources, reviews or statistics.
6. Images
Some illustrations and photos on this site are generated with AI tools and do not show real people, offices or clients. We never present generated images as evidence of an agency’s work. Agency homepage screenshots are shown to identify the agency and link to its site.
7. Corrections
If we get something wrong, we fix it. Send corrections with evidence through our contact page. Every correction request gets a written reply, and significant corrections are noted on the page.
8. Conflicts of interest
Editors may not review an agency they have worked for, invested in or have a personal relationship with in the past three years.
9. Contact the editors
Email hello@worldrankingforum.com or use our contact page.