Editorial policy

Every guide on this site opens with a direct answer to its title question, uses question-style headings, and states checkable facts rather than impressions. A guide about a code, a level or a segment names the classification, its managing body and the version its statements rely on, so a reader can take the same statement to the current UNDP codeset and verify it.

Facts come from the sources listed on the sources page: the United Nations Development Programme as managing body, the United Nations Global Marketplace UNSPSC pages, and official adopters that publish UNSPSC guidance, such as state procurement bodies and universities. Where a statement rests on a secondary summary rather than the codeset itself, the guide says so in its wording, and no guide invents a code number, a segment number, a fee, an eligibility rule, a contact or an author.

Guides are written to vary by topic. Section order, length, examples and format follow the depth of the topic, not a fixed template, and worked code readings use only published examples, such as 10101501 for cats, 44121706 for wooden pencils and 43211602 for docking stations. No guide determines any reader’s code, and no guide offers a lookup tool. Corrections are made by editing the guide and updating its updated date, so the date on a page always reflects a real edit.