Editorial policy
What gets published, what does not, where every claim has to come from, and what happens when we get something wrong.
Where a claim has to come from
Every factual statement on this site traces to one of the tiers below, or is labeled as an assumption. Higher tiers are preferred, and the tier is shown next to the figure on product pages so you can weigh it yourself.
| Tier | What it is | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Named authority | NFPA, Pet Poison Helpline, VCA, CPSC, ASTM and equivalents | Every safety claim, without exception |
| 2. Manufacturer documentation | The maker's own product pages, manuals and specification sheets | Wattage, bulb fitment, capacity, wax type, stated hours |
| 3. Peer-reviewed research | Published studies | Emissions and air-quality questions, where any exists |
| 4. Retailer listing | The seller's own specification block | Only where no manufacturer documentation exists - and always labeled as a retailer listing |
| Never | Other affiliate listicles, brand blogs as fact sources, AI-generated summaries, our own memory | Nothing |
Alongside the hierarchy, four rules:
- Cite inline and linked, at the point of the claim. Not in a footer.
- Name the source in the sentence. "The Pet Poison Helpline names..." beats "studies show".
- Every figure carries its source and the date we read it.
- If it cannot be verified, it does not get published. The field says "Not published" instead.
What we refuse to publish
- Any claim of testing, ownership or hands-on use. We have none. No "in our testing", no "after six months of daily use", no "we tested 40 warmers".
- Reviews, testimonials or ratings. There are none on this site and there will not be. We run no tests, so we have no rating to give, and we emit no rating in our structured data either. A third-party rating would only ever appear pulled live and attributed to the retailer - never typed by hand.
- Credentials nobody here holds. No expert, specialist, veteran, long-time, certified or licensed anything. No "medically reviewed by", no expert panel, no editorial team implying a staff that does not exist.
- A price we cannot verify live. Anything older than 48 hours disappears and the button falls back to "Check price".
- Medical or veterinary advice. We report what named authorities say and link to them. We never tell you a specific product is safe for your animal.
- "Pet-safe" as if it meant something. No body issues the term and no regulation defines it.
- A buy button for a product with no verified buy path. We say so and link nothing instead.
Stating uncertainty is part of the job
Where evidence is genuinely thin, this site says so rather than picking the answer that suits a sale. The live example is long-term exposure to warmed fragrance in indoor air: it is asserted confidently in both directions across this category and the research does not support that confidence either way.
So that page separates what is established, what is candle research being misapplied to a product that does not burn, and what is genuinely unknown - and it stays in the third bucket rather than resolving it for you.
This costs us. A confident answer is a better page to read. It is a worse page to trust, and trust is the only thing this site has.
Corrections
Errors are corrected as soon as we know about them, dated, and logged - not silently edited away.
For a substantive change to a fact or a recommendation, the page's modified date updates and the change is noted. For a typo or a broken link, we fix it and move on; nobody needs a changelog entry for a missing comma.
To report something: email info@thewaxindex.com or use the contact form. Pointing at a source helps but is not required.
No correction log exists yet, because the site has just launched and nothing has needed correcting. When one does, it will appear here rather than being folded quietly into an edit.
How often each page is rechecked
| What | How often | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Prices | Daily, automated | Live data layer; stale after 48 hours |
| Money roundups - are the picks still available and still right? | Quarterly | Scheduled |
| Safety pages - has the cited guidance changed? | Every 6 months | Scheduled, plus immediately on any NFPA, Pet Poison Helpline or VCA update |
| Running-cost arithmetic - is the electricity assumption still fair? | Annually | Scheduled, or sooner if rates move materially |
| Product specifications | On every page refresh | Re-verified against the manufacturer |
| Corrections | Immediately | Reader report or internal discovery |
Independence
No brand pays for placement, sees a page before publication, or has any input into a ranking. We accept no samples and no free product.
The site is funded entirely by affiliate commission, set out in full on the disclosure page. Commission is not a ranking factor, and the clearest evidence is that our criteria routinely rank a well-documented product above a better-selling one, and that we recommend an entire popular product format - the tealight burner - nowhere at all.
How every pick is arrived at, and what would change one, is on the methodology page.