How we write and review what we publish

This policy covers everything we publish on aithor.io: tool pages, guides, comparisons, templates, the glossary and the blog. It explains how we decide what to write, who writes it, where AI fits in and what happens when we get something wrong.

Who we write for

Our readers are adult university students working on academic assignments: essays, lab reports, literature reviews, dissertations and theses. We stick to that territory, which means writing, referencing, research and revision. We don’t publish anything aimed at under-18s or unrelated to academic work.

How we choose topics

• Real questions first. What students search for and what they ask us by email count for more than whatever is trending.
• One question, one page. We don’t publish near-identical versions for each country, year or synonym. If a difference matters, such as APA in Spanish versus APA in English, it gets its own section on the same page.
• Only features that exist. We write about what the app does today. Anything still in testing stays unannounced.
• Something of our own on every page. An example we made, a real screenshot of the app, a checked figure or a template. If we can’t add anything original, we don’t write the page.

Who writes and how pages are reviewed

Our pages are written by the Aithor.io team, and we use AI to suggest outlines and prepare drafts (more on what we do and don’t use it for below). Before it goes live, every page passes an automated editorial review run by the Aithor.io editorial team. It has two parts:

A page that fails the review is held back until it’s fixed. Every page shows “Editorial review: Aithor.io team” at the bottom, with the date.

This review is no substitute for a subject expert. So if you spot a mistake, tell us: a person on the team reads every report and corrects the page. We may add named authors and reviewers in the future; if we do, they will appear on each page.

How we use AI

We use AI tools, including Aithor.io’s own, for specific parts of the job:

• What we use it for: suggesting a structure, producing drafts, summarising product documentation, translating between Spanish and English, catching typos, and reviewing each page before it goes live as part of the editorial review.
• What we never use it for: publishing text that hasn’t passed the editorial review; inventing examples, testimonials, figures or people; citing a source that doesn’t exist; or creating images of people who don’t exist.

If an image was made with AI, its metadata (IPTC) says so, and every blog post explains under “How this article was made” whether AI was used and for what.

AI doesn’t get a byline either. As COPE already asks of scholarly publishing, an AI tool can’t be an author because it can’t take responsibility for what is published ^[1]. That’s why our pages are signed by the Aithor.io team, which stands behind what they say.

How we check sources

1. Before a page goes live, the editorial review checks every source’s DOI against Crossref ^[2] or, if there’s no DOI, that its link works. A source that fails is replaced or removed, and the page waits until it is.
2. If a work has no DOI, we find it in OpenAlex ^[3] or on the publisher’s site and link to that address.
3. If a source goes offline later, we replace it or remove it.
4. Every guide cites at least one source, and every blog post at least three.

The review checks that each source exists, not that it says exactly what we attribute to it. If you find a citation that doesn’t match its source, tell us and we’ll fix it.

How we handle product facts

Figures about Aithor.io, such as how many citation styles it supports or what the free plan includes, come from a single record that we check against every app release. The fact tables on our tool pages show the date of that check, and anything unconfirmed stays off the site.

Every free allowance is shown together with its limit, never as a bare number. Here, for example, is how we show what the free plan includes for Guided writing:

Examples and screenshots

We make our own examples, with our own topics and data. Screenshots come from the real app, branded Aithor.io. We never use students’ work without their permission, and we never reuse text from other websites.

Independence

We make Aithor.io, so we have an interest, and we say so. In comparisons, the ranking and the verdict follow criteria published before testing, and we also say where the other tool comes out ahead; the method is on how we test. If a page ever carries an affiliate link or reflects a commercial deal, it will say so on that page.

Corrections and updates

• Spotted a mistake? Email hello@aithor.io with the page address and what is wrong. A person on the team reads it and, if it’s a mistake, corrects the page.
• If a correction changes the meaning of what a page said, we note it at the bottom of that page with the date.
• Dates are honest. The publication date never changes. The “updated” date only changes when the content does, not when we fix a comma.
• Pages that age get reviewed. Comparisons are reviewed every three months and taken down if their data goes stale. A page that stops being useful is improved, merged into another or removed.

For now, every page is signed by the Aithor.io team. If named authors or reviewers join later, we’ll say so on this page and on each page they sign.