Editorial Standards
How Cooperatives.com is researched, written, reviewed, and corrected — so you can judge whether to trust what you read here.
Who writes our content
Cooperatives.com is written and edited by our in-house editorial team — researchers and writers focused on cooperative economics, governance, law, and sector analysis. Articles are published under the Cooperatives.com Editorial Team byline rather than individual names: every guide is researched, drafted, and reviewed against the same shared standard, and reflects the editorial position of Cooperatives.com as a whole. We do not invent author personas or fabricate credentials. Where a guide draws on a named authority — the International Cooperative Alliance, the USDA, a national registrar — we name that source in the text and in the article's references, so you can check it yourself.
How we research
Our articles are researched against primary sources: the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), USDA cooperative data, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), national cooperative legislation, and peer-reviewed academic research. We prefer official statistics and founding legislation over secondary commentary. Where a figure changes over time — membership counts, asset totals, the number of cooperatives in a country — we state the reference year alongside the number rather than presenting it as a timeless fact, so a 2021 figure is never mistaken for today's.
How we cite
Each article carries its own Sources & further reading section, and key claims link inline to the body that published them. We cite named institutions and their publications in prose — not bare reference codes — so a claim can be traced without leaving the page. We add an external link only when we have confirmed it resolves to the source it claims to be.
How we keep articles current
Cooperative law, registration requirements, and sector figures change, so guides are living documents. When we revise an article, the “Updated” date shown beneath the title reflects the most recent substantive review — not a cosmetic edit. Articles that depend on fast-moving data are revisited more often than evergreen explainers of, say, the seven cooperative principles.
Corrections
We would rather be corrected than be wrong. If you spot an error — an out-of-date statistic, a mis-stated legal requirement, a broken citation — please tell us. We check every report against the primary source, fix what is wrong, and update the article's review date. Substantive corrections are made transparently rather than quietly overwritten.
Where our directory data comes from
Cooperative listings are compiled from official public registries: the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) in the United States, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) in the Philippines, and the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) in India. Every cooperative profile names the registry it was sourced from. We do not invent cooperatives, ratings, or member testimonials, and we are independent of — not affiliated with — the organisations listed.
Independence
Cooperatives.com is an independently built and maintained resource. We have no federation memberships, institutional backers, or government funding, and we are not affiliated with the International Cooperative Alliance, any national cooperative body, or any individual cooperative. That independence lets us write candidly about the cooperative model — its advantages, its trade-offs, and how it compares with other business structures.
Found something to fix?
Corrections, data updates, and cooperative submissions are all welcome. The fastest way to reach the editorial team is the contact page.
Contact the editorial team →