Make Trusted Content Visible
A TrustMarc is a visible badge attached to a publication, dataset, repository item, report, or organization that links to a machine-readable certificate explaining why it can be trusted. The certificate provides transparent evidence about the standards, policies, review processes, governance practices, preservation arrangements, or other criteria that have been applied to the content or organization.
By making trust signals visible, verifiable, and interoperable, TrustMarcs help researchers, students, policymakers, journalists, AI systems, and the public quickly assess credibility, reduce uncertainty, and discover high-quality information in an increasingly complex digital environment.
Trust exists. It just needs to be seen.
Many universities, think tanks, IGOs, NGOs and other content producers have internal policies, program committees, review panels, institutional repository criteria, and review bodies that vet each item they publish. Often they belong to bodies like the Committee of Publication Ethics, and adhere to standards like DORA or FAIR.
TrustMarcs provide a unified framework for recognizing and making these signals visible, machine-readable, portable, and reusable. At last end users can see and understand certifications, assessments, endorsements, provenance, and other trust indicators from multiple sources.
Not just a badge, but infrastructure for trust
A TrustMarc isn’t just another badge.
TrustMarcs combine a visible mark with a persistent certificate, open resolver, shared registry, standardized metadata, a shared registry and management tools. Trust can now travel with content wherever it appears.
Wherever a Trustmarc is viewed–—a publisher website, institutional repository, discovery service, indexing platform, research portal, or AI-powered system–—the underlying trust record remains accessible, verifiable, and reusable.
TrustMarcs transform isolated trust signals into shared infrastructure. Instead of requiring every organization, platform, repository, index, and AI system to independently evaluate trust, TrustMarc creates a common mechanism for communicating trust across the information ecosystem.
The result is content that is more discoverable, more credible, more interoperable, and better prepared for use in AI systems, repositories, and discovery services.systems.
Trust already exists. TrustMarc helps the world see it.
Who benefits from TrustMarcs?
Researchers and readers
Use TrustMarcs to quickly identify trustworthy content and organizations See how content was created, reviewed, preserved, funded, or endorsed, helping users assess credibility, and reduce the time spent evaluating sources. As AI-generated and unverified information proliferates, TrustMarcs offer a reliable way to distinguish trusted materials from content of uncertain provenance.
Non-profits, Think Tanks, NGOs, IGOs, Associations, and Funders
Use TrustMarcs to showcase endorsed, funded, or reviewed content; verify organizational identity and stewardship; build public confidence; enable trusted sharing across platforms; and measure audience engagement and impact.
Libraries and Cultural Organizations
Use TrustMarcs to increase the trust, discoverability, preservation, and impact of institutional repositories, special collections, archives, and grey literature. Provide visible trust signals, support persistent access, improve interoperability, and supply machine-readable metadata for discovery systems and AI tools.
AI Agents, Discovery Services, Indexes, Repositories, and Specialist Websites
Use TrustMarcs to identify trustworthy content, expand coverage to fugitive material, improve ranking and filtering, support responsible AI use, and help users discover and analyze reliable information at scale.
Publishers and Content Providers
Publishers create trust. TrustMarcs make that trust visible, portable, and machine-readable wherever content is discovered and used. Demonstrate authenticity, editorial quality, and professional standards for non-traditional content. Strengthen brand reputation, increase discoverability, traffic and audience reach across AI-systems, indexing services, and discovery platforms.
Accreditors, Auditors, Standards Bodies, and Other Service Providers
Use TrustMarcs to convert reviews, assessments, audits, and certifications into scalable trust products that can be issued, renewed, monitored, and integrated across the scholarly ecosystem. Benefits include recurring revenue, stronger customer retention, greater visibility, and recognition as a trusted authority.
