Editorial Standards

⭐ Editorial Standards — AskAFriend.com

Last Updated: June 2026

AskAFriend.com follows a structured, transparent editorial framework designed to ensure that all published materials — including consumer‑style questions, AI‑generated responses, scoring rubrics, and methodological documents — meet high standards of accuracy, clarity, reproducibility, and academic integrity. These standards support the registered meta‑analysis protocol and reinforce our commitment to responsible AI evaluation.

1. Purpose of Our Editorial Standards

Our editorial standards exist to:

  • ensure methodological consistency
  • maintain transparency in how content is generated and evaluated
  • support reproducibility across research phases
  • uphold academic rigor
  • protect users from misinterpreting research artifacts as real‑world advice
  • reinforce trustworthiness and domain authority

These standards apply to all content published on AskAFriend.com.

2. Content Types Covered by These Standards

AskAFriend.com publishes four primary categories of content:

  • Consumer‑style questions used in the prompt library
  • AI‑generated responses collected for evaluation
  • Evaluation rubrics and scoring frameworks
  • Methodological documents, including protocol updates and analysis notes

All content is produced and published within the context of the registered research protocol.

3. Research‑Aligned Content Creation Process

3.1 Prompt Development

Prompts are:

  • written by the research team
  • validated by domain‑knowledge reviewers
  • calibrated across three complexity tiers
  • aligned with real consumer information‑seeking behavior
  • reviewed for clarity, neutrality, and representativeness

Prompts are never written to favor or disadvantage any AI model.

3.2 AI Response Collection

AI responses are:

  • collected under standardized conditions
  • captured verbatim
  • stored with metadata for reproducibility
  • not edited, corrected, or improved
  • published exactly as generated

This ensures the integrity of the evaluation dataset.

3.3 Human Review and Oversight

Human reviewers:

  • verify prompt clarity
  • validate rubric alignment
  • ensure safety‑critical caveats are evaluated correctly
  • confirm that published materials reflect the protocol
  • maintain consistency across domains

Reviewers do not alter AI responses; they evaluate them.

4. Accuracy and Quality Standards

Although AskAFriend.com does not publish advice, we maintain strict standards for:

  • accuracy (factual correctness of prompts and rubrics)
  • completeness (coverage of domain‑relevant scenarios)
  • clarity (plain‑language explanations of methods)
  • safety (clear disclaimers and non‑advice framing)
  • transparency (open publication of methods and scoring criteria)

AI responses are evaluated against these standards — not edited to meet them.

5. Domain Expertise and Cross‑Domain Integrity

Our editorial process is informed by:

  • systems engineering principles
  • multi‑domain consumer‑literacy experience
  • structured decision‑system design
  • editorial architecture
  • cross‑domain research synthesis

This ensures that prompts, rubrics, and evaluation criteria reflect the real informational challenges consumers face across six applied domains.

6. Transparency and Reproducibility

AskAFriend.com is committed to:

Transparency is a core component of our editorial philosophy.

7. Safety, Limitations, and Non‑Advice Policy

To prevent misinterpretation:

  • All Q&A content is labeled as research artifacts
  • No content is intended as legal, medical, financial, or home‑repair advice
  • No professional relationships are created through this site
  • All pages include clear disclaimers
  • Safety‑critical topics are handled with explicit caution

This protects users and maintains academic integrity.

8. Updates and Version Control

Editorial standards are reviewed periodically to ensure alignment with:

  • evolving research needs
  • updates to the protocol
  • changes in AI model behavior
  • new domain‑specific regulations
  • best practices in academic transparency

All updates are documented in the site’s version history.

9. Contact

For questions about our editorial standards or research methodology, contact: research @ askafriend.com