Sponsor disclosure policy

Last reviewed: 2026-04-27.

qms.best accepts sponsorship from a small number of organisations in the QMS ecosystem. This policy documents how the editorial firewall works, what disclosure looks like, and what sponsorship cannot buy.

Categories

• Auditor — accredited certification or surveillance auditors.
• Consultancy — independent QMS implementation support.
• Training — IRCA / Exemplar Global / national-scheme training providers.
• Tooling — software vendors serving QMS use cases.
• Certification body — accredited issuers of certificates.

Per-category cap

Each category accepts a maximum of 3 active sponsors at any time. The cap is enforced at build time in the static-site generator — the build fails if a category exceeds 3 active sponsors.

Editorial firewall

1. Sponsors do not commission articles. Articles are commissioned by the editorial team.
2. Sponsors do not review drafts. Sponsors first see the published article.
3. Sponsors do not have approval rights. Editorial decisions are final.
4. No "advertorial". We do not publish content authored by sponsors as articles.
5. No favourable framing. Articles do not name sponsors as recommended providers.

Disclosure

Every sponsored placement carries a visible Sponsored badge with a link to this policy. Sponsor profiles use rel="sponsored" attributes on outbound links per the Google Search Central guidance on sponsored content.

What sponsorship buys

• A profile page describing the sponsor (drafted by the sponsor; edited by the editorial team for length and neutrality).
• Placement of the profile in relevant listings under the sponsor's category.
• A sidebar or footer slot on category-relevant articles, capped per category as above.
• The right to use a "Sponsor of qms.best" line in their own marketing — without claiming endorsement, certification, accreditation, or any qms.best stamp of approval.

What sponsorship does not buy

• Editorial coverage.
• Favourable framing in any article.
• Right to review or approve content.
• Right to be named as a recommended provider.
• Affiliation with qms.best.
• Any implied endorsement of compliance, certification or accreditation.

Refusal rights

qms.best refuses sponsorship when:

• The sponsor's services or product conflict with the editorial scope.
• Acceptance would create or appear to create a conflict of interest.
• The sponsor pursues claims of "official" or "endorsed" status that we do not support.
• The category cap is full.

Affiliate links

Where we link to training, books, or tools and receive a referral commission, we mark the link rel="sponsored" and disclose the affiliate relationship inline in the article footer. Affiliate revenue does not influence article selection or framing.

Ethical advertising

qms.best may display ads served by an ethical-ads network (such as EthicalAds or Carbon Ads). We do not run Google AdSense, do not participate in real-time bidding programmatic advertising, and do not allow ad tech that fingerprints visitors.

Inquiry

Sponsorship inquiries: partners@qms.best.