Commissioned research and sponsorship policy

Version 1.0. Effective 7 October 2026. This policy covers money that funds research on EBR. Booking, payment and cancellation follow the Employer Branding News Advertising Terms.

Our principle. Employer Branding News says its editorial voice is not for sale. On EBR, findings are not for sale either. Organisations can pay for research to happen and for their name to be attached to it. They cannot pay for what it finds, whether it is published, or how it is described.

Four ways money can be involved

1. Research sponsorship. You fund a study that we design and run, such as an annual survey. You get your name on the paper and its launch coverage, a briefing, early access to the findings for up to 14 days before publication, and the right to use the findings with attribution. You get no say in the questions, the sample, the analysis, the conclusions or the publication date beyond that early-access window, and we will not withdraw or soften a finding because a sponsor dislikes it.
2. Commissioned research. You propose a topic or question and pay us to research it. We set the method and run the analysis, and we publish the results whatever they show. If you want results that stay private, that is consulting work from Fathom Data Labs. It does not appear on EBR and is never presented as EBR research.
3. Funded work by outside authors. Authors whose research was paid for by an employer, vendor, consultancy or other funder can submit like anyone else. They must declare the funding and any conflicts of interest in the paper. We decline papers that read as marketing.
4. Platform support. An organisation can support EBR's running costs. Supporters are listed on the About page. Support buys no connection to any paper.

What we never sell. Acceptance of a paper; faster screening; placement on the home page; endorsements or quotes from our editors; favourable coverage on Employer Branding News; citations; the removal or delay of a paper that criticises anyone; advertising inside papers. EBR carries no display advertising and no pop-ups, so nothing stands between a reader and the research.

How funding is shown

• Every funded paper carries a label under its title: "Sponsored research, funded by [name]" or "Commissioned research, commissioned by [name]". Unfunded work carries no label.
• The paper's funding statement names every funder and what they paid for, and the funder is recorded in the paper's metadata, so the disclosure travels to indexes and citations.
• Coverage on Employer Branding News follows its own labelling rules (How this works), and links to sponsors carry rel="sponsored".

Transparency of method. For research we run, we publish the method, sample size, fieldwork dates, weighting and the full question set. Where we can do so safely, we publish the anonymised data under CC BY 4.0 or CC0. Sponsors and clients never receive data that identifies individual respondents.

Conflicts of interest. Papers written by our own team say so, and name any client relationship that touches the topic. An editor never screens their own paper or a paper connected to a client they work with; a different editor does. When every one of our editors is an author of a paper, an independent advisory editor screens it instead.

Licensing. Sponsored and commissioned papers are always published under CC BY 4.0, so anyone can use the findings with credit.

Corrections. Sponsors and clients may point out factual errors about their own organisation before publication. We decide whether a change is needed. After publication, corrections follow the same process as any other paper, and only the editors can trigger a correction or withdrawal.

Our right to say no. We may decline any sponsor or commission, including any in the categories the EBN Advertising Terms prohibit, and any where the funder's interest in the answer is so direct that our independence would not be believable.

Fees and payment. Fees are quoted per project and cover the research work and the sponsor's visibility, never the outcome. Payment is in US dollars in advance, and cancellation follows the EBN Advertising Terms; work already done is charged. EBR charges authors nothing to submit or publish.

Other ways to work with us. Research sponsorship sits alongside the wider partnership programme of Employer Branding News, our parent publication: directory listings, sponsored and bylined articles, newsletter sponsorship and annual packages, each labelled under EBN's own rules. See the options and current rates on the Employer Branding News partner page.

Contact. [email protected] for sponsorship and commissions; [email protected] for editorial questions.