ethicsPolicy

ethicsPolicy · Optional

Appears in

Organization

What is it?

ethicsPolicy links an organization to a statement of its ethical principles and practices. For news organizations, this covers journalistic ethics: source handling, conflict of interest rules, advertising independence, and standards for accuracy and fairness. For other organizations, it may cover business ethics, supplier conduct codes, or food sourcing standards for restaurants.

The field accepts a CreativeWork or URL. It is one of the Trust Project transparency properties that schema.org added specifically for news media, but applies to any organization type.

Why this matters for AEO

Ethics policies are a direct signal of organizational accountability. When AI answer engines evaluate whether to cite a news source, present an organization as authoritative, or include a business in a recommendation, the presence of a public ethics policy provides machine-readable evidence that the organization operates under declared ethical constraints. This is particularly important for news organizations, where editorial independence from advertiser and owner influence directly affects the credibility of the information produced. AI systems increasingly use these trust signals to weight information sources, making an ethics policy declaration a meaningful differentiator for organizations that want to be treated as authoritative sources in AI-generated content.

What the specs say

Schema.org:ethicsPolicy expects a CreativeWork or URL. It is a statement about ethics policy, for example of a NewsMediaOrganization regarding journalistic and publishing practices, or of a Restaurant regarding food source policies. [Source: https://schema.org/ethicsPolicy]

Google: Not mentioned. This field is not listed in Google's structured data documentation for Organization. [https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization]

How to find your value

Common document formats for ethics policies:

• Editorial ethics code or ethics handbook
• Journalist code of conduct
• Advertising policy and editorial independence statement
• Corporate code of ethics or business conduct
• Restaurant sourcing and food ethics statement

The document should be substantive. A one-sentence ethics statement is not equivalent to a detailed policy that addresses specific situations and decision-making processes.

Format and code

News organization with ethics code:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
  "name": "NPR",
  "url": "https://www.npr.org",
  "ethicsPolicy": "https://www.npr.org/about-npr/688766551/npr-ethics-handbook"
}

Using a CreativeWork object:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
  "name": "ProPublica",
  "url": "https://www.propublica.org",
  "ethicsPolicy": {
    "@type": "CreativeWork",
    "name": "ProPublica's Code of Ethics",
    "url": "https://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/code-of-ethics"
  }
}

Restaurant with food sourcing ethics:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Restaurant",
  "name": "Blue Hill at Stone Barns",
  "url": "https://www.bluehillfarm.com",
  "ethicsPolicy": "https://www.bluehillfarm.com/our-sourcing-commitments"
}

Full transparency block for a news organization:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
  "name": "Reuters",
  "url": "https://www.reuters.com",
  "ethicsPolicy": "https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/company-code-of-conduct.html",
  "publishingPrinciples": "https://www.reutersagency.com/en/about/the-reuters-trust-principles/",
  "correctionsPolicy": "https://www.reuters.com/info-pages/corrections/",
  "masthead": "https://www.reuters.com/info-pages/about-reuters/"
}

Webflow implementation

Static pages

Add ethicsPolicy to your organization's JSON-LD block on your About page or homepage via Page Settings > Custom Code. The ethics policy URL is typically stable, making static implementation appropriate.

CMS template pages

As an organization-level field, implement on static pages rather than CMS templates.

In Schema HQ

Inside Schema HQ, the organization schema editor includes ethicsPolicy as a URL field in the editorial transparency section. Enter the URL of your ethics document, and Schema HQ includes it in the published JSON-LD alongside your other transparency fields.

Real examples

BBC :

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
  "name": "BBC",
  "url": "https://www.bbc.com",
  "ethicsPolicy": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/",
  "publishingPrinciples": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/governance/editorialguidelines"
}

Related fields

• publishingPrinciples
• correctionsPolicy
• masthead
• diversityPolicy
• unnamedSourcesPolicy

FAQ

Is ethicsPolicy different from publishingPrinciples?

publishingPrinciples covers the broader editorial philosophy and standards of a publisher. ethicsPolicy is more specifically about ethical conduct, conflicts of interest, and standards for behavior. In practice, many organizations have a single document that covers both, and pointing both fields to the same URL is valid. If your organization has separate documents for editorial principles and ethics conduct, use both fields with different URLs.

Can ethicsPolicy be used for non-journalistic ethics?

Yes. Schema.org explicitly mentions restaurant food sourcing policies as a valid use case. Any organization with a public ethics statement about how it conducts its operations can use this field, regardless of industry.

Does an ethics policy need to be a formal written document?

It should be a publicly accessible, substantive document rather than a generic statement. A policy document should identify specific ethical standards, describe what is and is not acceptable, and indicate how violations are handled. A brief "we believe in honesty" statement does not constitute an ethics policy in the sense intended by this field.