The Complete Guide to Submitting a Product for Review

PC WORLD PRODUCT REVIEWS. PC World believes in a methodical and hands-on approach to product testing and keeps in mind the point of view of an average computer user. We do not write stories from press releases, and we do not publish stories that are simple product lists. A combination of skilled editors, the PC World Test Center, and experienced contributing writers have allowed us to produce the most respected product reviews in the industry, month after month, for over 20 years. We strive for fairness, balance, accuracy, and consistency in all of our stories, and especially our product-based stories. Regardless of whether the vendor is large or small, or new or old, we use the same standard to measure the value of a product to our readers. Mentioning that you are an advertiser in no way influences our coverage.

VENUES FOR PRODUCT REVIEWS. Your product may be reviewed online at PCWorld.com and/or in the PC World print magazine. Online, your product might appear in a standalone online review, in a ranked online chart, in a Today @ PCWorld blog item, or in the online version of a print article. In print, your product could appear in the Reviews and Ranking section or in a product comparison story in the Features section All ranked charts comparing products and all standalone reviews of new products are handled by the Reviews department, and product roundups may be handled by either the Reviews or Features departments.

What's the difference between Reviews and Features projects? Every month, Reviews and Rankings picks a variety of products that have been, or soon will be, released. PC World's ranked charts provide a monthly print snapshot of the best shipping PCs, notebooks, printers, monitors, graphics boards, optical drives, digital cameras, and more. Online charts can change whenever a new shipping product enters in that category. Preproduction or beta products are often covered as standalone reviews, which tend to be short, with a hands-on approach. Shipping PCs and notebooks covered in New Products pass through the PC World Test Center for performance testing. Preproduction PCs and notebooks are, typically, not performance tested.

Product comparisons in features typically include classes of products that we evaluate once or twice a year. Examples include home networking, utility applications, image editing software, and so forth. However, product comparisons may also comprise extended reviews of Reviews and Rankings products. Digital cameras and home PCs, for example, may be found in both the Reviews and Rankings section and in features-based product comparisons. Only shipping products are ranked in our product comparisons, though we may cover important beta products in sidebars, blog items, or standalone reviews. So if we call for a shipping product and you don't have one, definitely let us know if you have a beta product for possible consideration.

SUBMITTING PRODUCTS. The key to submitting products to PC World for review is to know your beat editor. You can find an editor on our beat list. Pitching your product as early as possible is always best. PC World editors will sign a non-disclosure agreement, as long as the document has the specific product name (or code name), the date the NDA expires, and the standard escape clauses that allow us to report information that is in the public domain or that we discover independently. If your NDA does not have these standard clauses, we may include an addendum that covers them. Note: We typically schedule coverage based on the NDA date, so if the embargo changes to a later date, we drop the product from our lineup or push back coverage to a date that is convenient for us.

Next, get to know your editor's preferences. Some prefer to be contacted by phone, but most prefer e-mail. If you're fairly sure the editor received your message, please do not make repeated calls asking about our interest in your product. Also, it's best not to send shotgun e-mails to all PC World editors.

Beat editors meet once a month to discuss products that they've been pitched during the last month. The final selection for the print issue is made by the editor in charge of standalone product reviews for that month. Online product reviews are approved by the same editor. If your product is selected, the beat editor, a writer, or the editor managing the new products section that month will contact you.

For product roundups, the assigned editor will research the topic and contact vendors about candidates for review. Note: Though we publish an editorial calendar for the year, it is often changed as we reconsider topics and update editorial focus.

If you have a product suitable for a Ranked Chart in the Reviews and Rankings section, it's especially important to know the appropriate beat editor. We test a limited number of new products each month, and we frequently rotate topics and editors. For example, at one time, we may test ink jet printers for a printers chart, but the next chart may cover color laser printers. Similarly, an editor may manage a printer chart one month and a digital cameras chart the next, even if those topics do not fall under their usual beat responsibilities. As a result, the most reliable person to contact to submit a product for coverage in those charts will always be the beat editor, who will either coordinate the product submission or forward your request to that month's chart editor.

DEADLINES AND TIMELINES. Important points to remember when thinking about deadlines for PC World (and most other technical publications), are that the print issue hits the street in the middle of the month prior to the printed issue date, and the same content appears online at PCWorld.com a few weeks earlier. For example, the March issue is on the stands in mid-February; the March issue content is online at PCWorld.com in early February. Another important point is the lead times for different sections of the book. For standalone reviews, we'd like to know about a product approximately two to three months before the issue publishes; Top 10s, Top 5s, and product comparisons require about three to four months. Sometimes online coverage can be arranged on shorter lead times. But as we said above, it's best to let us know as soon as possible.

WHEN DO WE RETURN PRODUCTS? We do not return software, but all hardware is returned as promptly as possible. However, editors may make special arrangements to keep products for somewhat extended periods of time--typically if the product is going to be used in more than one section of the book, or if it's needed for story development. Normally, hardware is returned after it has been photographed by our art department. But it really depends on which section(s) of the book or Web site. For standalone new product reviews, turnaround may be a month; for the ranked charts, perhaps two or three months. For online reviews, shorter review periods can sometimes be accommodated. The editor who ordered the product can give you the approximate return date. If you need to have your product back more quickly, special arrangements can be made with the ordering editor.

PRODUCT AWARDS. PC World offers a number of product awards, all of which are based on products we have ordered and covered in one way or another.

We introduced the PC World Ratings in the November 2005 issue. From that point on, all new products are assigned PCW Rating that reflects our opinion of a product at the time we reviewed it. When a product's competitive landscape changes due to repricing, the entry of newer products, or the departure of older products, current products in the same competitive set are re-rated. Older, no-longer-competitive products may not be re-rated. Go to the link for complete details on the PC World Ratings system.

Another award is our Best Buy or Editor's Pick: it's always given to the one or two products at the top of our charts, but it may also be assigned to our top picks in product comparisons.

PC World's World Class Awards, announced each year in the July print issue, are given to outstanding hardware and software products, services, and Web sites, as judged by PC World's editors. Typically, it names around 100 award winners. There is no formal nomination process; all products, services, and sites covered over the course of the previous year are eligible, as well as new ones that will be shipping by the time the issue appears. Candidates are rated for performance, value, innovation, and reader interest. The Product of the Year award is selected by PC World's editors, and goes to what we judge is the single most outstanding product, site, or service that year. For more information, contact Edward N. Albro, Executive Editor of Features.

REVIEWS AND RANKINGS IN DETAIL

HOW THE CHARTS WORK. How the charts work. Each month we test a large number of PCs, printers, monitors, graphics boards, DVD drives, scanners, and digital cameras and compare them with previously reviewed products. As noted above, we test only shipping products for the ranked charts in Reviews and Rankings. We refresh the Top 5 and Top 10 charts every month by updating the prices on previously reviewed products and adding those new products that scored well enough to earn a place on the chart. System configurations are shown as tested, but we may note component upgrades when vendors let us know about them, as long as those upgrades do not affect our test results or the price of the product. For example, we will not update the processor, RAM, or graphics card, and we will not change the speaker or monitor model or delete components that were used to determine the price of the system we originally tested. Any of these changes will result in our dropping the system from our charts or our asking for the latest model for retesting. However, upgrading the speed of an optical - drive, or the size of a hard drive (as long as the rotational speed remains the same) are acceptable changes. Contact your editor for more specifics.

Because the number of slots on each month's chart is limited, we may not be able to review your product as soon as it's available. We will keep it on our order list and review it at the next opportunity. Keep in mind that, as noted above, some of the Top 10 charts rotate from month to month between sizes or types. Monitors, for example, rotate among 17-inch, 19-inch, and larger LCD models; printers rotate among color and monochrome ink jets, lasers, and multifunction printers. Your editor can tell you what types we will cover in a particular month.

WHO'S ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RANKED CHARTS? This question often comes up in relation to PCs and notebooks. Because we are a national magazine, and because many of our reviews are picked up by international publications, we do not cover PCs or notebooks produced by regional manufacturers. A PC or notebook in out Ranked Charts must be marketed, sold, and, most important, serviced nationally. For their protection, buyers who purchase a system directly from the vendor must be able to use a credit card.

PC WORLDBENCH 5. PC WorldBench 5 is our industry-standard benchmark for measuring PC performance. It measures how fast a PC can run a mix of common business applications as compared with our baseline machine. A system's PC WorldBench 5 score is relative to the baseline PC. For example, a PC that scores 200 is twice as fast as our baseline. .

RELIABILITY AND SUPPORT SCORES, AND SUPPORT POLICIES. Our formal Reliability and Support Quality scores are based on surveys of PC World readers. Run approximately once a year, the survey is divided into PCs, notebooks, and other hardware categories. It asks a series of detailed questions about our readers' experience with the reliability of their frequently used PC and the quality of the service provided by the PC vendor. For more information about our most recent survey, see our January 2006 issue. For Reviews and Rankings, we also score a vendor's support policies by evaluating the length of coverage, the hours and days of operation, fees, and other attributes.

CONTACTS:

Most PC World editors prefer to be contacted by e-mail. For all of us, the format is firstname_lastname@pcworld.com. For a complete list of PC World editors, go to our staff page.

For questions about Reviews and Rankings, contact Ramon McLeod, Executive Editor, Reviews and Online.

For questions about standalone reviews of new products, contact Melissa Perenson.

For questions about our feature stories and columns, contact Ed Albro, Executive Editor, Features.

For an editorial calendar or help with PC World's beat list, you may e-mail Amber Bouman.

Comments on this guide? We always appreciate your feedback. E-mail them to mageditor@pcworld.com.