Become an Articled Approved Organization

Who Can Become an Articled Approved Organization?

There is only one question we ask when evaluating eligibility. Does your organization publish written work under its own name, such that a reader could presume an employee of the organization authored it? That means newsrooms, trade publications, newsletters from nonprofits, a university’s departmental blog, software companies with a documentation team, and agencies that write for clients all fall under this definition. It does not matter whether they are big or small; a publication with two people and a company with forty writers both sign the same page.

Agencies are the example worth expanding on. If you write for your clients, then the commitment applies to what you write for them and what you publish for yourself. Having a badge on an agency site that covered only the agency blog would mislead every buyer who reviewed it. If agencies cannot guarantee this across all client work, they are welcome to say so and skip the application rather than scope it down.

We do turn away applicants. Organizations that sell generative writing tools or humanizers cannot be listed, regardless of their own editorial practice, because the mark would become a product endorsement. Partial coverage is not allowed either, meaning a group cannot enroll one title and continue generating text under another masthead, since readers do not see the org chart.

• Organizations that sell generative writing tools or detector-evasion services.
• Applications for one brand while a sister brand publishes generated text.
• Websites from which we cannot sample any published work before deciding.
• Freelancers, who apply through the writer route instead.
• Those who are unwilling to name a person accountable for the commitment.

Requirements to Become an Articled Approved Organization

An application includes five things, four of which can be sent within one afternoon. A signed commitment on your letterhead. A link to your policy page on your own site, in your own words, because a promise only we can see is not much of a promise. The name and title of the signatory, who has the authority to bind the organization. A named contact for checks. And a link to the archive we should sample.

The stalling point for most applications is the public policy page. There is no need for legal drafting. It should plainly say which tools are ruled out, which uses are ruled out, who to contact about a specific piece, and the date it took effect. Two short paragraphs are enough. A page saying the organization values human creativity without ruling anything out is not acceptable.

Next, we read and sample. A first sample is typically three pieces we pick from your archive, run through the twelve detection and originality platforms we use on our own drafts. If something is flagged, we contact you and ask about that piece before deciding anything, because a flag on human writing is common enough that treating it as proof would be dishonest.

1. Publish your public policy page and give it an effective date.
2. Sign the commitment and name the person who signed it.
3. Send both to hello@articled.org, along with a contact for checks.
4. We sample three published pieces and bring up anything the detectors flag.
5. Approval, questions or a decline all arrive by email from a person.

What Happens After You Become an Articled Approved Organization

Approval gives you four things: a directory entry carrying your name, sector and the year, a badge file, the URL that badge is required to link to, and a first scheduled recheck twelve months out. The badge is not sent as a free-floating image. It ships with the link, and a badge that does not link to your entry is not a valid use of the mark.

Obligations begin rather than end. Each year we send an email re-confirmation that a person has to answer, and we sample again. Any change to your editorial policy must reach us within thirty days. A report submitted by a reader will trigger a check outside the annual cycle. This is not backbreaking work, but it is work, and you are better off not applying if you would rather not do it.

Leaving is easy, and deliberately unpunished. You will usually get confirmation that your entry has been taken down the same day you email us to ask. There is no exit interview and we publish no notice. We do not keep a public list of former members, because a delisting notice reads like an accusation and we are not equipped to adjudicate one. We will confirm dates privately to anyone who asks.

Become an Articled Approved Organization FAQs