Standards
Every substantive page on Model Diplomat must meet four standards before publication: a named, credentialed author; a named subject-matter reviewer; primary-source citations at a density of roughly one citation per 150–200 words; and a visible "last reviewed" date that reflects an actual editorial pass, not an automated bump.
Sourcing
We default to primary sources: UN Treaty Collection, World Bank, IMF Article IVs, Freedom House, V-Dem, court decisions, official government publications, and peer-reviewed scholarship. Secondary sources (Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, War on the Rocks, reputable national papers of record) are used for analysis and framing, never as the only source for a contested factual claim.
Review and fact-checking
Pages on the eleven substantive pillars (Political Systems, Global Affairs, Law & Rights, Economics & Trade, Media & Information, History, Leaders, Rhetoric, Regions, Religion, Tech & Power) require review by a subject-matter expert before publication. The reviewer must edit at least 20% of the words; pages with a lower human-edit ratio do not ship. The reviewer's name and the review date appear on the page.
Corrections
When we get something wrong, we correct it on the page and log it publicly at /corrections. Substantive corrections trigger a fresh editorial pass and a new dateModified; typo fixes do not. We do not silently rewrite history.
Conflicts of interest
Authors and reviewers disclose any financial, advisory, or institutional relationship that a reasonable reader would want to know about when assessing their work. We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or strategic-communications work in exchange for editorial coverage. Atlas, our AI assistant, is a Model Diplomat product; we disclose this everywhere it appears.
AI-assisted content
Some pages are drafted with AI assistance and then edited by a named human author. Some pages are written entirely by humans. No page on Model Diplomat is published fully autonomously by AI on YMYL topics. See /ai-disclosure for the full breakdown.
Updates
Tier-1 pillar pages are reviewed every 60–90 days. Evergreen pages are reviewed quarterly. A visible changelog appears on pages where substantive changes have been made.