Sponsorship & Conflict-of-Interest Policy
How sponsorship sustains our educational infrastructure without ever compromising the independence and integrity of what we publish.
Last updated: June 18, 2026
The American Society of Hirudotherapy is a nonprofit medical-education society. We build and maintain open educational infrastructure — an evidence registry, clinical reference material, safety documentation, translations, and verification systems. Sustaining that infrastructure costs money, and sponsorship is one of the ways we fund it.
This policy explains exactly how sponsorship works here, and — more importantly — the hard limits that protect our editorial independence. We accept sponsorship revenue without letting it influence what we say, how we grade evidence, or which sources we cite. Independence and integrity are not negotiable line items; they are the reason the Society exists.
The Conflict-of-Interest Firewall
Sponsors never influence editorial content.
There is a permanent, structural firewall between everyone who funds the Society and everyone who decides what it publishes. Sponsorship is handled entirely separately from editorial work. No sponsor — current, prospective, or former — has any input into, review of, or veto over:
- the content of any article, page, or educational material;
- how clinical evidence is graded or summarized;
- which studies, sources, or citations are included or excluded;
- any clinical, safety, or regulatory position the Society takes;
- editorial scheduling, corrections, or retractions.
Editorial decisions rest solely with the Society’s editorial team and follow our published editorial policy and evidence-grading standards. Funding a project never buys a seat at the editorial table.
No editorial influence
Sponsors cannot review drafts before publication, request changes, or shape conclusions. Editorial and funding functions are kept separate by design.
No endorsement
The Society does not endorse, recommend, or rank any vendor, brand, product, device, or service — sponsor or otherwise. Sponsorship is never an endorsement.
Evidence stays independent
Evidence grading, citation selection, and clinical and safety positions are determined only by the evidence and our published standards — never by who is paying.
What Sponsors Can Fund
Sponsorship supports the infrastructure and capacity that makes open medical education possible. These are non-editorial, non-clinical activities — the plumbing, not the message. Eligible uses include:
Infrastructure
Hosting, software, data pipelines, accessibility work, and the technical platform behind the infrastructure project.
Open data
Building and maintaining open, freely available datasets and the evidence registry, so the underlying record stays public and auditable.
Translations
Translating educational material into additional languages to widen access — without changing the substance of what is translated.
Verification
Citation checking, fact verification, and the systems that keep our references accurate and traceable to primary sources.
What Sponsors Cannot Fund
Sponsorship funds infrastructure — never clinical claims.
No amount of sponsorship can purchase clinical content or outcomes. The following are strictly outside the scope of any sponsorship and cannot be funded, commissioned, or shaped by a sponsor:
- clinical claims, treatment recommendations, or statements of efficacy;
- reported outcomes, results, or conclusions about any therapy;
- evidence grades, citations, or the wording of safety positions;
- favorable coverage, endorsement, or placement of any product or vendor;
- removal or softening of unfavorable evidence or safety information.
The Society publishes education and infrastructure, not treatment advice or cures. Sponsorship does not change that boundary. If a prospective sponsor asks for any of the above, the sponsorship is declined.
Editorial-Independence Statement
The American Society of Hirudotherapy retains complete and final editorial control over everything it publishes. Sponsorship, donations, and other revenue have no bearing on editorial judgment. Where evidence is weak, uncertain, or unfavorable, we say so — regardless of any funding relationship.
Our reputation depends on readers being able to trust that what they read reflects the evidence and our published editorial standards, and nothing else. We would rather decline funding than compromise that trust.
Disclosure Practices
Transparency is how the firewall is verified from the outside. We commit to the following disclosure practices:
- Sponsor identification. When a specific deliverable is funded by a sponsor, that support is disclosed plainly — clearly labeled as sponsorship, not woven into the content as endorsement.
- Nature of support. Disclosures state what was funded (e.g., infrastructure, translation, verification), so readers can see the support was for capacity, not for a clinical position.
- No hidden influence. We do not accept sponsorship that requires confidentiality about its existence, nor any arrangement that ties funding to editorial outcomes.
- Consistency with governance. Disclosures align with the conflict-of-interest commitments in our editorial policy and broader transparency practices.
How Sponsorship Works
Having established the firewall and the limits above, here is the practical process. Note that this call to action appears only after the independence commitments — on purpose.
Inquiry
A prospective sponsor contacts the Society and identifies the infrastructure, open-data, translation, or verification work they are interested in supporting.
Eligibility & COI review
We confirm the proposed use falls within what sponsors can fund and raises no conflict of interest. Anything touching clinical claims, endorsement, or editorial influence is declined.
Agreement & firewall terms
Sponsorship is documented in writing, including the explicit terms that the sponsor has no editorial role and receives no endorsement.
Disclosure
Funded work is disclosed as described above, so the support is visible and the independence of the content is verifiable.
Interested in sponsoring our infrastructure?
If your organization wants to help sustain open hirudotherapy education — infrastructure, open data, translations, or verification — and you accept the editorial-independence and no-endorsement terms above, we’d welcome the conversation. Reach us at hirudo@hirudotherapysociety.org. You can also support the Society directly.