Policy
Editorial standards
Written down so that a reader can hold us to them, and so that a buyer knows before asking.
Sourcing
We cite collections, archives and peer reviewed history of science and medicine where we can, and we say when a point rests on a single source. Preferred institutions include the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Wellcome Collection, the Science Museum Group, the British Library, the National Archives, university museum collections and the Royal Historical Society. We link to institutional pages rather than to aggregators. We do not cite accession numbers for specific objects, because catalogue identifiers change over time and a stale one misleads.
What we never do
- Invent a person, a date, a study, a quotation, an artefact, a museum holding or a statistic.
- Attribute a specific object to a specific accession number.
- Present an inference as a finding. Chemistry tells you composition, not intention.
- Recommend a product, a brand, a treatment, a clinic or a practitioner.
- Use the past to shame present day readers about their own choices.
Unverifiable claims
Where a famous story cannot be traced to evidence, we mark it in a standing block that states the claim, where it appears to have come from, and what is actually established. We do not simply omit these stories, because omission leaves the reader with the impression that we have not heard of them. Where a claim is plausible but unproven, we say plausible but unproven, and we do not round that up.
Imagery
All photography on this site is commissioned still life of historical material culture, made for the magazine. It is illustrative rather than documentary: an image of a bone hairpin on this site is not a photograph of a specific catalogued object, and we never caption it as though it were. We do not use images of people, and we do not present any picture as an archival document unless we say so and name the holding institution.
Money and judgement
Paid listings are alphabetical, labelled and factual. A listing cannot buy an article, a mention, a link in an article, a position, a rating or a tone. Newsletter sponsors buy a labelled line and nothing else. Members buy nothing except continuation. No one outside the editorial desk sees an article before publication. We do not accept payment, hospitality, travel or gifts in exchange for coverage, and we do not accept advertising from anyone selling a cosmetic product or a treatment, because it would compromise the one thing this magazine is for. The list of what is not for sale is published.
Links
External links are provided for reference and carry no endorsement. They are marked so that search engines do not treat them as recommendations. We carry no affiliate links, no tracked commercial links and no paid links anywhere in editorial content, and every article on this site carries a notice saying so.
Corrections and complaints
Corrections are published on the page they affect, dated, and described in enough detail that a reader can see what changed. Substantive corrections are also listed in the following newsletter. If you think something here is wrong, write to us with the specific sentence and, if you have one, the source. We would rather be corrected than consistent.
Disclosure on production
Articles are researched, drafted and edited by the Glow Gazette desk for Glow Gazette. Imagery is commissioned generative still life, described above. We do not publish reader submitted content, and we do not run guest posts, contributed articles or thought leadership, paid or unpaid.
The Gazette, four times a year
One long letter a quarter: what we have been reading, what turned out to be untrue, and what is worth going to see. No selling, because we have nothing to sell you.
Sponsor lineEach issue carries one sponsor line, labelled as such and set apart from the writing. Sponsors are shown the rate card, never the copy. See the rate card.