Editorial Standards

Why this document exists

Standards that live only in an editor’s head are not standards, because they change under pressure and nobody can hold you to them. This page states what Oton Technology holds itself to, so a reader can judge whether we met it on any given article.

Sourcing

Primary material outranks everything. A filing, an advisory, a changelog, a specification, a transcript or a court record is worth more than any number of write ups of it, and where a primary document exists we work from it and link to it. Where a story rests on a claim that cannot be independently checked, the article attributes the claim to whoever is making it and does not present it as established.

Single source stories are published only when the source is the primary party and the claim is one they are positioned to know. A company describing its own product roadmap is a valid single source for that roadmap. A company describing a competitor’s failure is not.

Anonymous sourcing is used sparingly. When it is used, the article says what the person is in a position to know and why they are not named. Supply chain reports and analyst estimates are labelled as estimates, with the firm named, because readers deserve to know a number is modelled rather than counted.

Language and framing

We write in plain words. Jargon is used when it is the precise term and explained when it is not obvious. We avoid the vocabulary that makes weak stories sound strong: a company does not slam a rival, a product is not a game changer, and nothing is revolutionary until it has revolutionised something.

Numbers carry their units, their period and their basis. A percentage without a base is not a fact. A benchmark without the test conditions is a marketing asset, not evidence.

Headlines say what the article establishes, not the most dramatic thing it mentions. If the headline claims more than the body proves, the headline is wrong and gets changed.

Independence

Editorial decisions are made by the newsroom. Advertisers do not see stories before publication, do not influence what is covered, and do not receive protection from unflattering coverage. Review hardware is disclosed when it has been supplied and returned or retained as appropriate. Where any relationship exists that a reasonable reader would want to know about, it appears in the article.

Artificial intelligence in production

We use software tools in research and drafting. A human is responsible for every published article: the facts, the framing, the sourcing and the errors. No article is published without a person having checked its claims against the underlying material. Responsibility for what appears here does not transfer to a tool, and we do not offer that as an excuse when something is wrong.

Updates

Developing stories are updated and the update is marked with what changed. Substantive changes to a published article are logged. Silent rewriting of the record does not happen here, and where a change corrects an error it is handled under the Corrections Policy rather than treated as an edit.