How we source, review, and update.

Neutrality

• No pay-for-placement. Rankings in the manufacturer, dealer, and products directories are editorial — sort order is alphabetical or by a documented metric (NIJ cert count, CPL status, dealer coverage). No advertiser can move up the list.
• No sponsored content. Every guide, brief, and standards page is editorial. If we ever publish sponsored content in the future, it will be labeled unambiguously and segregated from the editorial corpus.
• Disclosure of business relationships. ArmorOS operates a brokering function that routes verified-buyer inquiries to participating dealers. Dealer participation is opt-in and does not affect their placement in the directory or any guide.

Sourcing

• Statutes come from primary state-legislature sources (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, nysenate.gov, state-specific codification portals). Every citation on a state page links to the canonical text.
• NIJ standards + CPL are synced from nij.ojp.gov and cjttec.org (NIJ CPL host). The body-armor CPL is scraped weekly; helmet + shield curation is manual because NIJ does not host a public machine-readable helmet/shield list.
• ASTM standards are referenced from store.astm.org with full standard numbers and revision years. ASTM content itself is copyright — we do not reproduce the standards, only describe scope.
• BVP / BJA cycle and award data come from bja.ojp.gov and Federal Register NOFOs. Deadlines are verified against the NOFO text before publication.
• Manufacturers + dealers are curated editorially. Manufacturer metadata (HQ, ownership, product lines) is verified against the company's own website, press releases, and SEC filings where applicable. Dealers are verified against state FFL records and manufacturer authorized-dealer lists.
• Community posts are user-generated and not editorial. They are moderated (pin, lock, soft-delete) under the community guidelines, not the editorial policy.

Freshness + review cadence

• State regulation is reviewed quarterly or whenever our regulatory monitor detects change (state legislature + Federal Register + Congress.gov — new bills, session changes, enacted law).
• NIJ CPL is synced weekly. Delistings and supersessions are published as briefs within one business day.
• Guides carry a visible last-reviewed date. Any guide older than 180 days without a review is flagged in the editorial queue.
• BVP cycle data is updated when NOFOs are posted (typically March–April each fiscal year) and again after award announcements (typically fall).

Corrections

We publish a public correction log at /corrections. Any material factual error gets a dated correction note. Typos and formatting fixes are corrected silently.

To flag a correction, use the contact form with the category Correction to content. A human replies within one business day.