Our Review Process

Last updated: 5 May 2026 · Version 1.0

Plain-English summary: Every piece of content on KiqIQ goes through five stages — research, draft, fact-check, editorial review, publish — before it reaches you. The editor signs off on factual accuracy and editorial fit before anything goes live.

The 5-stage pipeline

Research

Topic identified from editorial roadmap, reader feedback, or current events. Source materials gathered: primary sources (academic papers, club documents, official statements, statistical providers) and secondary sources (reputable football journalism, established analytical sites).

→ Output: Research brief with source list, key claims, and structural outline

Draft

First draft written from research brief. Following the structural standards in our Content Style Guide: heading hierarchy, plain-English summary, framework-step structure, FAQ section where appropriate, related links. AI tools may assist with synthesis or copy-editing — never with statistical fabrication.

→ Output: Draft article with cited sources inline

Fact-check

Every statistical claim verified against the cited source on the day. Quotes verified against original. Historical claims cross-checked against ≥2 independent sources. Player/club references verified at time of writing. Dated content gets explicit date stamps.

→ Output: Annotated draft with fact-check log

Editorial review

Editor reviews for: editorial principles compliance (no tipster language, RG pairing where appropriate, honest framing), structural standards (headings, FAQ, links), tone and voice (British English, probabilistic framing, calibrated language), accessibility (alt text, semantic markup), SEO (title, description, canonical, hreflang).

→ Output: Reviewed draft ready for publication

Publish

Final draft committed to repository, deploys via Vercel. Sitemap updated. Internal links verified. OG image generated where flagship. Indexable from publication. Logged in the public changelog if a meaningful change.

→ Output: Live page on kiqiq.com

Timing

For an evergreen guide or hub page, the full pipeline typically takes 4–8 hours of editor time. For a time-sensitive piece (e.g. a tournament preview close to kickoff), the timeline compresses but the same stages apply — fact-checking is never skipped.

Who reviews what

Currently, all five stages are performed by KiqIQ's founder and editor, David Findlay. As the team grows, stages 1–3 may be performed by contributors, with stages 4 and 5 retained by the editor.

Where a topic falls outside the editor's direct expertise, KiqIQ may commission an external specialist contributor. In those cases, the editor still performs final review against editorial standards.

Statistical content

For any piece using statistics:

Data provider explicitly identified (FBref, Understat, Opta-derived, StatsBomb-derived)
Date of data retrieval recorded
Methodology disclosed where statistics derive from KiqIQ's own model (Poisson, EV, etc.)
Sample size noted for any pattern claim
Limitations acknowledged where the model breaks down

Updates and refresh

Time-sensitive content is reviewed periodically:

Tournament previews refreshed before each cycle
League hubs reviewed at season transition
Statistical baselines updated annually or when an underlying data provider changes methodology
Material updates noted in the changelog

Contact

If you spot a factual error, want to suggest a topic, or have feedback on our review standards: editor@kiqiq.com.