Editorial Independence Policy, sponsorship standards, and other disclaimers for Jatan’s Space

Dear reader, I’d like to request your attention for 5 minutes, especially if you regularly consume my work. What follows below are formal disclaimers regarding the ethical standards of my space writings at large. This page is updated over time as necessary.

Hi, I’m Jatan Mehta, the sole author, editor and owner of Jatan’s Space, an independent blog, newsletter, and publication covering the exploration of space and our Moon. While I broadly adhere to the ethical standards proposed by the Institute for Nonprofit News, something widely adopted by a variety of media publications around the globe, I’d like to take this space to be transparent to my readers on the specific ways in which I ensure editorial independence of my writings and the exact way I run sponsorships.

1. I never display any ads anywhere on Jatan’s Space. This policy extends to my auxiliary web presence in the form of social media and other things.
2. Sponsorships are the key mechanism by which I sustain my flagship Moon Monday newsletter as well as the monthly Indian Space Progress reports. Sponsors help fund said works monetarily and get acknowledged for the same in return. They also get a few non-promotional perks, all of which are listed below on this page. Sponsors, by design, DO NOT get any editorial leverage over my writings or any purely promotional perks such as sponsored messaging or ads. Moreover, if I happen to mention a sponsor in the content of a post, a clear disclaimer adjoins it stating that they sponsor the newsletter. These reasons are especially why I’m grateful to my sponsors who support my work primarily just because they want to.
3. Accepting monetary support does not necessarily imply I endorse the products, services or opinions of my sponsors. At the same time, sponsors DO NOT bear the weight of being seen as a supporter of opinions I express in my writings or editorial decisions I make.
4. Sponsors have the ability to receive the following perks at large in return for their monetary support. In every case, I manage the final wording of all information.
   1. Sponsors get a logo on Jatan’s Space’s About page, linked to their website.
   2. Sponsors get acknowledgement credits in newsletter editions.
   3. Sponsors get a yearly brief welcome message to introduce them to my readers
   4. Sponsors can list some factual dispatches in newsletter editions, such as job listings and event announcements. These never contain use of adjectives or any such ad-like messaging.
   5. Sponsors can separately ask me to write an article on a theme of their choice but specifically not on their product in any way. Such an article is written without their editorial involvement. For a piece that best demonstrates such an example, see “Past mistakes to avoid in our grand return to the Moon this decade”. This perk of sponsoring an article is available to individuals as well, at a lower cost than to organizations.
5. I accept sponsorships only from organizations that are pro-science, pro-space, and pro-Moon, and are doing a legitimate business or activity. I do not accept sponsorships from organizations purely in the defense sector, or from dedicated subsidiaries to that effect. Alas, space technology is dual-use and political by its very nature, and so I don’t think attaining a complete refrain of affiliation from any defense-related organization at all is possible in principle. In any case, I only cover civil space.
6. Sponsors don’t get access to email addresses of any subscribers, or any such related personal stats for that matter. What I do and will share with potential sponsors are several bulk stats, such as the total number of subscribers of my newsletters and their overall open rates, none of which is individually identifying information in any way. Nevertheless, I offer all readers an option to subscribe to my blog via RSS so you don’t need to take my word for it.
7. I accept support from individuals too. The kind of people who personally support my work has been gratifying. If that includes you, I extend a heartfelt thank you.
8. Moon Monday and Indian Space Progress each have their own sponsors so as to reduce dependence on individual organizations. This intentional separation means an organization wanting to get visibility on both newsletters will have to pay twice, which obviously no one would be inclined to do.
9. I disclose the name of every sponsor that donates to me at least $1000 in a year. In an unlikely event that a circumstance causes me to consider otherwise, I’ll say that someone or some organization has donated an amount X and share the reason for granting them anonymity. There hasn’t been such a case so far.
10. Jatan’s Space contains all space articles I’ve written, for the convenience of my readers to follow, browse, and search across my work as well as for the purposes of archival and redundancy. The writings on Jatan’s Space are absolutely free to access by everyone. This includes syndicated versions of articles I’ve written for publications. In every such case, I honor the publication-required hold period before republishing my work on here. The typical hold period demanded by media publications is 24 or 48 hours, and sometimes much more.
11. I do not own shares of any space companies, public or private, primarily to keep my writing unbiased. If this state changes, I will declare the same here. I wish for more publishers, writers, and creators to reveal beforehand if they have any such vested interests.
12. If I formally consult for a space company, I disclose it in a relevant new article, newsletter or post I publish as soon as possible, after having seeked and received due permissions in the agreement.

If at any point you find a discrepancy in my work with regards to the ethical standards I’ve laid out above, or if you want to make me aware of a major element I haven’t considered, please reach out to me:

Thank you for your time, care, and curiosity.