How we build this site

Every page on The Tick Almanac follows the same structural pipeline: brief → draft → typed data row → reviewer signoff → publish → quarterly refresh check. This page is the plain-English description of that pipeline so you can audit our process before you trust any specific page.

1. Source hierarchy

Claims on this site are ranked by source authority:

1. Primary public-health authorities — CDC, FDA, EPA, NIH, AAD, AVMA, AAFP, state health departments. Used for every disease, regulatory, and public-health claim.
2. University extension and academic entomology — UMN/UMass/UMD/Cornell/UF/TickEncounter etc. Used for species ID, life cycle, habitat, and tick-monitoring claims.
3. Peer-reviewed research — Journal of Medical Entomology, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Lancet, etc. Used for emerging-pattern and range-expansion claims.
4. Manufacturer pages and FDA label data — used only for product-specification verification, never as authority for safety claims.

Full list of every source we cite is at /sources.

2. Reviewer tiers

Per the editorial policy:

• Tier 1 — Author-only. Tick basics, history, terminology. Author signs and dates; no external reviewer required.
• Tier 2 — Medical reviewer (MD / DO / NP / PA). Disease pages, removal, repellents, symptom routing.
• Tier 3 — Veterinary reviewer (DVM). Pet pages, after-bite triage, prevention products, cat-toxicity safety.
• Tier 4 — Entomology reviewer. Species ID, regional/state guides, map and data interpretation.

Reviewer name, credentials, and "last reviewed" date appear above the fold on every reviewed page. Pages awaiting reviewer signoff are publicly accessible but emit <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> so they don't compete in SERPs until a reviewer co-signs the content.

3. Evidence tags inside data rows

State guides and visual-ID pages carry per-claim evidence tags so a skeptical reader can immediately see which claims are state-surveillance-confirmed vs editorially inferred:

• state-surveillance-confirmed — the state's own surveillance data backs the claim.
• state-unique-angle — a state-specific fact distinct from regional pattern (e.g. Borrelia mayonii in MN/WI).
• regional-pattern — true regionally; not state-specific.
• non-diagnostic-mention-only — the disease appears in state context but the page does not lead with it for that state.
• source-caveated-editorial — sources support a window but the specific phrasing is editorial; awaits Tier 4 signoff.

4. Map and data sourcing

County-level shading on state pages and the national choropleth comes from a build-time pipeline (scripts/generate-maps.mjs) that consumes CSV inputs from src/data/maps/. Each CSV header block declares its source authority and the access date. When the data is a placeholder baseline pending state-surveillance import, the per-map metadata sidecar (.meta.json) flags it explicitly.

5. Refresh cadence

Different content types have different review schedules — see refresh cadence for the per-content-type policy.

6. What disqualifies content

The site rejects content that:

• Makes a medical diagnosis or recommends specific treatment for an individual reader.
• Cites a wellness blog, marketing site, or content farm as authority for a medical claim.
• Carries an affiliate link adjacent to symptom, dosing, contraindication, adverse-event, or veterinary-warning copy.
• Promises a "cure," "natural fix," "secret," or any phrasing that bypasses evidence.
• Asserts state-specific facts that aren't sourced from the state authority's published data.

A build-time check enforces the affiliate-adjacency rule. The others are editorial-review responsibilities.

7. How we handle corrections

Submitted corrections (via contact) are triaged within 48 hours on weekdays. Material corrections are noted on the page with an updated "Last updated" date and a changelog entry in the page's frontmatter.