simplemaplab

Editorial Policy

SimpleMapLab is run by Marko Visic, an independent operator. There is no advertiser relationship that shapes content, and no “sponsored partner” section. This page describes how content is researched, written, fact-checked, and corrected; how AI is used (and where it isn't); and how editorial independence is maintained against the site's commercial backbone (display ads).

Editorial mission

SimpleMapLab exists to make public-domain geographic data accessible to non-specialists through fast, free, reproducible tools and well-sourced studies. Editorial decisions are made against four commitments:

  1. Specificity over vagueness. Where data exists for a real number, we use it. Where it doesn't, we say so explicitly.
  2. Sourced over asserted. Every factual claim traces to a public dataset, an official document, or a cited methodology. Anything we can't source, we don't state.
  3. Transparent over polished. Limitations, uncertainty bounds, and methodology choices are disclosed in the same place the finding is stated — not buried in fine print.
  4. Useful over viral. A page exists because it answers a real question. We won't add a tool, a study, or a blog post if it's only there for keyword coverage.

Who writes the content

Every page of editorial copy is researched and edited by Marko Visic. There is no contributor program, no freelance pool, and no “guest-posted” content. Long-form prose (tool descriptions, blog posts, study narratives) is drafted with the assistance of large language models — see the AI disclosure section below — and then reviewed, fact-checked, and edited before publication.

How we write and verify content

Editorial work on SimpleMapLab follows a standard research → outline → draft → fact-check → edit → publish workflow. Every fact, statistic, place name, distance, demographic, and source is verified against primary data before publication, and every page is reviewed by Marko Visic before going live.

AI assistance disclosure

We use AI writing assistants — specifically Anthropic's Claude — as a drafting tool. We disclose this prominently because readers deserve to know how content is produced and Google's content policies require transparency about substantial AI assistance.

What AI is used for on SimpleMapLab:

What AI is NOT used for — and how we're sure:

Where human judgment is non-negotiable: which study to publish, the framing of the headline finding, the methodology disclosure, corrections, press responses, and what to leave out. Marko Visic owns every claim that ships, regardless of which tool produced the first draft.

We disclose AI use because the alternative — pretending all content is hand-written when it isn't — is a credibility risk. Modern AI writing assistance, properly bounded and verified, is a useful drafting tool. Pretending it doesn't exist on a site that actually uses it would violate the editorial transparency standard we hold ourselves to.

Sourcing standards

Every factual claim on the site must be traceable to one of these source classes:

We don't source from listicle blogs, Reddit threads, Quora answers, or AI summaries of any of the above. If a fact requires citation, we cite the primary source directly.

Editorial process per content type

Tool pages (64 currently published)

  1. Identify the user task the tool addresses (what someone is searching for when they need this tool).
  2. Build the tool — the calculation is the source of truth, not the prose.
  3. Write the "How to use this tool" section and 4-6 worked examples with named places + specific numbers.
  4. Write the methodology block — the formula, the data source, the accuracy bound — citing our central Methodology page where relevant.
  5. Write the FAQ (typically 8-12 questions) and the technical reference table.
  6. Cross-link to related tools.
  7. Test the tool end-to-end on desktop + mobile before publishing.

Open-data studies (3 currently published)

  1. Identify a real research question worth answering with public data.
  2. Write the computation pipeline as a TypeScript script in scripts/ — the script outputs a deterministic JSON file from public inputs.
  3. Sanity-check the top entries against an independent source (Wikipedia, Census official tables, the relevant agency's reports).
  4. Write the hub page with the headline finding, ranked tables, per-state grid, and methodology.
  5. Write the per-state spokes. Selected spokes get hand-written historical context; the rest use data-driven differentiated paragraphs.
  6. Publish the dataset (JSON + CSV) under CC-BY 4.0, with the contentUrl in the Schema.org Dataset markup.
  7. Verify the headline finding holds up after reviewing the top-20 entries one more time.

Blog posts (8 long-form posts)

Each blog post is the canonical answer to a specific question (e.g., "how many counties in each US state," "the largest US counties by area"). Posts are factual and topical, not listicles. Each one is built to be the definitive resource for that question with sourced data tables and internal links to the relevant tools. Posts are revised whenever a reader reports a possible error or the underlying data changes.

What we don't do

Corrections policy

Errors get found. When a reader, a journalist, or our own re-review surfaces a mistake, the workflow is:

  1. Verify. Confirm the error against the underlying source data. Sometimes "errors" turn out to be intentional methodology choices we should explain better; sometimes they're real bugs.
  2. Fix at the source. Update the data file, the script, or the prose — whichever is the root cause. Rerun any dependent pipelines.
  3. Publish the fix. Rebuild the affected pages and deploy.
  4. Note the correction. Add an "Updated: corrected X on date" line at the bottom of the affected page. For headline-grabbing corrections (top-line study finding changing), also email anyone we're aware of who cited the affected number.
  5. Reply to the reporter. Thank them, explain what we fixed, and what was wrong.

To report a possible correction: email hello@simplemaplab.comwith "Correction:" in the subject line, the page URL, the value you think is wrong, and (ideally) a source. We respond within 1–3 business days; fixes typically publish within 48 hours of confirmation.

Editorial independence and advertising

SimpleMapLab is supported by display advertising. Display advertising is content-blind: ads appear in fixed slots on tool, blog, and study pages based on the network's targeting, not on what the page says. Marko Visic has no editorial relationship with individual advertisers, no advance knowledge of which ads will run on which pages, and no incentive to write content favourable to specific advertiser categories.

Concretely, this means:

Affiliate and partnership disclosure

SimpleMapLab does not currently run affiliate links, sponsored content, or paid partnerships. If that ever changes — for example, an affiliate relationship with a hardware or software partner relevant to the site's topic — this section will be updated, the affiliate links will be marked with the recommended rel="sponsored" attribute, and the page itself will carry an inline disclosure.

Conflict of interest

Marko Visic has no financial interest in any product, service, or organisation discussed on the site beyond the open-source software dependencies described on the About page. SimpleMapLab is not affiliated with the US Census Bureau, OpenStreetMap Foundation, the National Park Service, USGS, Google, or any other agency or provider whose data we use. The tools and studies use public data but are independent of and not endorsed by those data providers.

Sources and external links

When we cite an external source — a government agency, an open-source project, an academic paper — we link directly to the primary source, not to an aggregator or summary. Outbound links open in a new tab with rel="noopener" for safety. Outbound links are not affiliate or referral links.

Voice and style

Pages are written to be useful, not breathless. Concrete claims with named places + specific numbers outweigh adjectives. We avoid:

We try to write like a colleague who knows the data well and is helping you find what you need fast. Specificity is the voice.

Update cadence

Reader trust signals (how to verify the above)

You don't have to take our word for any of this. Concrete ways to verify:

Questions

Questions about how content is produced, sources we use, or how we'd handle a specific edge case: hello@simplemaplab.com, or the Contact page.

Editorial Policy last updated: 26 June 2026. Maintained by Marko Visic. Material changes to this policy will be dated and noted at the top of this page.