Research.com is an informational, editorial, referral, advertising, and comparison platform operated by Research USA LLC, located at 8 The Green, STE R, Dover, DE 19901, USA.
Research.com provides content relating to colleges, universities, degree programs, online education, careers, rankings, financial aid, student loans, and related topics. We also operate as a for-profit business.
This means Research.com may generate revenue through advertising, affiliate relationships, referral arrangements, sponsorships, paid placements, paid mentions in articles, paid data processing services for institutions, commercial partnerships, and other business relationships with certain schools, universities, education providers, agencies acting on their behalf, brands, platforms, advertising networks, advertisers, or other third parties.
Research.com discloses material connections with certain schools, education providers, agencies, advertisers, networks, and other third parties featured on the Site, including paid relationships, sponsorships, affiliate arrangements, referral arrangements, advertising partnerships, and commercial relationships. This disclosure is intended to help users understand when commercial relationships may affect visibility, placement, presentation, or promotional treatment on the Site, and how such relationships are kept separate from our ranking results.
This disclosure is intended to support transparency and compliance with applicable advertising disclosure guidance, including guidance issued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding endorsements, testimonials, advertising disclosures, and material connections.
How Research.com May Generate Revenue
Research.com may receive compensation in a variety of ways, including through advertising arrangements, referral fees, affiliate commissions, sponsored placements, paid mentions in articles, paid data processing services, commercial partnerships, paid placements, and other promotional or performance-based arrangements.
Compensation may be tied to clicks, referrals, advertising impressions, sponsored placements, published mentions, processed data updates, outbound redirects, partner reporting, commercial agreements, advertising arrangements, or other advertising-related actions connected to certain content, links, listings, advertisements, widgets, buttons, schools, programs, providers, or placements featured on the Site.
Research.com works with Esyoh as an advertising network partner for certain education-related advertising widgets, sponsored placements, referral links, and outbound referral activity.
Research.com may also work with universities directly or through agencies and other authorized representatives acting on a university’s behalf. These agencies act on their own behalf and are not authorized to represent Research.com.
When users click an advertising widget, sponsored link, referral button, comparison link, advertisement, or similar feature on the Site, they may be redirected to a page operated by Esyoh, a university, an education provider, an advertiser, or another third-party destination.
Research.com does not operate school application forms, lead forms, program inquiry forms, enrollment forms, request-information forms, or similar forms through which users submit personal information to schools or education providers on the Site.
Paid Mentions in Articles
Some articles on Research.com, particularly in our advice and online degree sections, may include paid mentions of a university, program, or other brand. Paid mentions are written and approved by Research.com, which controls their wording, presentation, and disclosures. Where required by applicable law or regulatory guidance, paid mentions are identified as advertising, for example with an “Ad” label or icon and visual highlighting. Links included in paid mentions carry rel="nofollow" and may also carry rel="sponsored" attributes. A paid mention is not an editorial endorsement and does not affect any ranking.
Rankings and Paid Data Processing Services
Research.com publishes data-driven rankings of universities and academic programs. Our rankings use licensed information from Peterson’s, research data from OpenAlex, other publicly available information about institutions and programs, and program data submitted and confirmed by institutions or their authorized representatives, which we review before use. A description of our data sources and ranking methodology is available at https://research.com/our-methodology.
Universities, and agencies or other authorized representatives acting on their behalf, may pay Research.com to prepare and process current, institution-confirmed program data and to recalculate the applicable rankings using that data. Such processing may result in more current information being displayed for that institution or in the publication of a newly submitted program that meets the same eligibility criteria we apply to all institutions.
Payment for data processing is not payment for inclusion, eligibility, a ranking score, or a ranking position. Payments, budget size, and advertising arrangements do not influence ranking criteria, weights, scores, eligibility decisions, or the order of results. Only verified data and our methodology determine ranking outcomes, and a paid update may result in a ranking position that improves, declines, or remains unchanged. Any institution may submit verified data to Research.com free of charge through our standard editorial channel, and we consider such submissions under our standard editorial processes and timelines.
Rankings are published in annual editions, and data processed during an edition cycle applies until the next edition replaces it. Where required by applicable law or regulatory guidance, we will also identify on the relevant ranking page that data for a listed institution was processed under a paid arrangement.
Editorial Content and Commercial Relationships
Research.com publishes editorial content, rankings, comparisons, reviews, guides, and informational resources intended to help users make more informed decisions.
Outside our ranking results, some content, links, placements, buttons, widgets, listings, featured results, advertising units, sponsored links, article mentions, or pages on Research.com may be influenced by commercial relationships, sponsorships, affiliate arrangements, referral agreements, paid placements, advertising relationships, or other business considerations.
Featured or Sponsored schools, programs, providers, or advertising placements may appear at or near the top of certain pages, listings, comparison experiences, or advertising units because of a paid relationship or commercial arrangement. Such placements are promotional inventory, are separate from ranking results, and do not mean that a ranking score or position was purchased.
Research.com maintains separation between our editorial ranking process and commercial partnership activities to support objectivity in our ranking methodology and editorial processes. Advertising arrangements concern paid promotional inventory only and do not require the removal of any institution from ranking results or prevent factual corrections.
For non-ranking content, Research.com may apply its own editorial standards, internal criteria, data sources, business judgment, and commercial considerations in determining how that content is created, organized, and presented. Users should assume that some schools, institutions, programs, or providers appearing in non-ranking content, advertising units, or featured placements on the Site may be featured, prioritized, or promoted in part because of a commercial relationship.
Commercial relationships may influence visibility, placement, presentation, buttons, advertising widgets, sponsored links, article mentions, featured results, comparison experiences, or promotional treatment on the Site, but not ranking results. They should not be understood as guarantees, endorsements, or recommendations that any school, program, provider, product, or service is the best option for a particular user.
Sponsored Labels and Disclosure Presentation
Where required by applicable law or regulatory guidance, Research.com uses labels or icons such as “Sponsored,” “Featured,” “Paid Placement,” “Advertisement,” “Ad,” or similar disclosures to identify content, listings, widgets, links, buttons, article mentions, advertising units, or placements connected to a commercial relationship.
Research.com intends for these disclosures to be presented clearly and conspicuously so users can understand the commercial nature of the placement.
Disclosures are displayed in a way that is easy to notice, with sufficient color contrast and in close proximity to the relevant content, listing, widget, button, link, mention, or placement, and may be combined with visual highlighting of the relevant content, so users can readily understand when a commercial relationship is involved.
Material connection disclosures may appear near specific content, listings, widgets, advertisements, buttons, mentions, or placements on the Site in addition to this centralized disclosure.
Not All Schools or Programs Are Included
Research.com does not necessarily include all schools, universities, degree programs, education providers, or educational opportunities available in the market.
Our platform does not provide a comprehensive list of every university, school, program, provider, or educational opportunity in the United States or elsewhere. Our editorial and promotional content focuses on our partner network, selected high-performing institutions, and other schools, programs, or providers that Research.com chooses to cover based on editorial, data, commercial, or business considerations. Inclusion in our rankings is determined by our data sources, eligibility criteria, and methodology, not by commercial relationships.
The presence or absence of any institution, provider, or program on Research.com does not mean that it is the best, only, complete, or most suitable option available.
Users should independently research and compare schools, programs, and providers and should not rely solely on Research.com when making decisions about enrollment, tuition, accreditation, transfer credits, licensure, financial aid, deadlines, career outcomes, or any other important matter.
No Guarantee or Endorsement
A listing, ranking, review, article, profile, mention, recommendation, referral link, featured result, sponsored placement, advertising widget, button, or placement on Research.com does not constitute a guarantee, certification, warranty, or endorsement of any school, university, provider, product, or service.
Research.com does not guarantee:
- admission or acceptance;
- tuition levels or affordability;
- accreditation status;
- transferability of credits;
- licensure eligibility;
- educational quality;
- graduation outcomes;
- salary outcomes;
- career advancement;
- career or employment results;
- financial aid eligibility;
- program availability;
- program completion;
- any other educational, financial, or career outcome.
All material information should be verified directly with the relevant institution, provider, accreditor, regulator, licensing authority, employer, or official source.
Third-Party Websites, Advertising Widgets, and Redirects
Research.com may contain outbound links, referral links, sponsored links, advertising widgets, buttons, comparison links, advertisements, or redirects to third-party websites, including websites operated by schools, universities, education providers, advertisers, affiliate partners, Esyoh, platforms, service providers, or other third parties.
When you click a link, advertising widget, sponsored link, referral button, comparison link, advertisement, or similar feature and leave Research.com, your interactions with that third party are governed by the third party’s own terms, privacy policy, disclosures, and practices.
Research.com does not collect or receive personal information that users submit on third-party websites after clicking an advertising widget, sponsored link, referral button, outbound link, comparison link, advertisement, or similar feature and leaving Research.com.
Personal information submitted on a university, education provider, advertiser, Esyoh, or other third-party destination is collected by that third party under its own privacy policy and terms.
Research.com is not responsible for the content, claims, services, offers, security, data practices, products, communications, admissions processes, financial aid processes, enrollment decisions, or conduct of third-party websites or services.
Any relationship, transaction, communication, application, enrollment decision, financial arrangement, service request, or dispute you have with a third party is solely between you and that third party.
For more information about Esyoh’s data practices, users may review Esyoh’s privacy policy at https://www.esyoh.com/privacy-policy/.
Advertising and Tracking Practices
Research.com may use advertising, affiliate, referral, sponsored placement, paid mention, data processing, and commercial partnership arrangements as part of its business model.
Research.com does not use Google AdSense or similar third-party advertising networks that serve behavioral advertising on Site pages.
Research.com works with Esyoh as an advertising network partner. Esyoh, universities, agencies, and other advertising partners do not place advertising pixels, behavioral advertising scripts, or user-tracking code on Research.com pages. Advertising-related activity by these partners occurs in their own environments after a user clicks an advertising widget, sponsored link, referral button, comparison link, advertisement, or similar feature and is redirected to a third-party destination.
Research.com does not sell personal data, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it for targeted advertising.
Research.com does not disclose personal data to third parties for their own independent marketing purposes, and does not provide universities, advertisers, or their agencies with visitors’ personal information or reports based on individual visitor activity.
Research.com does not use analytics or advertising cookies on the Site. Our hosting, content delivery, and security providers may use strictly necessary cookies or similar technologies to deliver the Site and protect it against abuse, as described in our Privacy Policy.
Outbound links, advertising widgets, sponsored links, referral buttons, comparison links, advertisements, or redirects may include technical referral parameters, click identifiers, or similar values used by the destination or advertising partner for click measurement, referral attribution, partner reporting, and reconciliation. Research.com receives only non-identifying business reports from these partners and does not use them to identify individual visitors or link a conversion to an identifiable person.
Why This Disclosure Exists
Research.com believes users should understand that commercial relationships may exist between Research.com and certain schools, providers, agencies, advertisers, platforms, networks, and partners featured on the Site.
This disclosure is intended to provide transparency about our business model so users can evaluate our content with appropriate context and better understand when commercial relationships may affect visibility, placement, presentation, or promotional treatment on the Site, and how they are kept separate from our ranking results.
Advertising and material connection disclosures should be clear, understandable, and easy for users to notice.
Your use of Research.com is also subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Affiliate / Advertising Disclosure, please contact:
Research USA LLC8 The Green, STE R
Dover, DE 19901
USA
Email: [email protected]