Feedback and complaints relating to ICIS Editorial
ICIS welcomes comments, queries and other feedback on its editorial services, assessments and market-reporting methodologies. ICIS is committed to continuous improvement of its editorial standards, and feedback from customers is vital to that commitment.
Inevitably, from time to time, disputes arise about ICIS methodology, or about specific news items or reported prices.
This document is designed to help customers achieve swift resolution of such disputes where practicable, and in accordance with Codes of Business Conduct at Reed Elsevier (parent of ICIS), ICIS itself, and the joint IPRO Code for global price-reporting services drawn up by ICIS, Platts, and Argus Energy in 2012.
Contents
General Enquiries or Complaints
To enable us to respond efficiently to enquiries or complaints more efficiently, please note the general contact address for ICIS is:
Email Address: csc@icis.com
ICIS requests that detailed enquiries, and complaints in particular, be submitted in writing, to help avoid miscommunication.
Issues with Specific Content
For feedback regarding specific reports, products, assessments or services, please contact the editor in charge of the relevant report in the first instance. The editor’s email address is listed on the top right-hand of the front page of each individual report.
Alternatively, email us at the general purpose csc@icis.com address.
The responsible editor or their editorial manager will acknowledge receipt and provide an initial response to all communications within two working days.
If we need more time to provide a detailed response, we will indicate this in the initial response, and provide an interim report on the status of our efforts. All complaints will be logged and escalated to a reporter’s line manager. All substantial complaints will be escalated to higher levels in the organisation, typically to regional Managing Editors, the Head of Market Reporting and if need be, to the group’s Editorial Directors.
Writing a Complaint
Please supply us with as much information as possible that relates to your issue. In particular:
- Name(s) of the party or parties involved.
- Details of trade particulars such as prices, volumes, terms etc. if necessary.
- Details of specific reports, text or data in dispute
- Details of any apparent failure by ICIS staff to adhere to Codes of Conduct
- Details of any apparent failure to adhere to published methodologies
- Copies of any documents in support of the complaint.
All complaints will be treated in the strictest confidence, but in some circumstances, ICIS may need to verify details of transactions or trading negotiations with counter-parties.
We are committed to dealing with complaints quickly, but the period of time required to follow up on complaints obviously varies on a case-by-case basis.
Action and Response
Each complaint will be reviewed by the relevant editors and managers to determine what action to take. If warranted, a public correction will be issued as soon as is practicable in accordance with existing policies and methodologies.
Customers should note that ICIS Codes of Conduct mean the company and its employees will not:
- disclose sources of information without the agreement of those sources
- disclose information passed to reporters in confidence
- provide testimony in court or appear as “expert witnesses”
Please note too that as a general principle, ICIS cannot correct published prices on the basis of “subsequently received” market information: that is, on the basis of information that was not available to reporters at the time of publication. Corrections are issued only in the event that ICIS management finds that a procedural, methodological, typological, or mathematical error has been made by ICIS.
ICIS will consider all well-founded requests for changes to its market-reporting methodologies. Customers should note, however, that in the interests of orderly market-reporting, methodology changes are typically made with a long lead time (minimum four weeks), and in consultation with a wide industry cross-section. Methodologies will not typically be changed in response to a single complaint.
Further appeal:
ICIS employs a Head of Compliance to whom further appeal can be carried in the event that a customer believes their complaint has not been dealt with appropriately.
Please note, however, that the Compliance function is responsible for ensuring that the ICIS editorial group implements its methodologies in a consistent and correct manner, and has no jurisdiction over the content of the methodologies themselves, nor any power to make methodology changes.
Key ICIS managers:
Managing Editor (Asia): Prema Viswanathan
Managing Editor (Europe): William Lemos
Managing Editor (Global Energy): Shelley Kerr
Managing Editor (Americas): Heather Doyle
Information Director (Chemicals): Chris Qi
Information Director (Energy): Liao Na
Head of Market Reporting: Barbara Ortner
Head of LNG, Gas, Power, Coal: Louise Boddy
Head of Compliance: Richard Street
Editorial Director: Stephen Burns
Editorial Director: Steve Tan
Managing Director: Christopher Flook
10 December 2012
A PDF download of the ICIS feedback policy is available here
The ICIS Editorial Code of Conduct is available here
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