Vendor Transparency Score
The Vendor Transparency Score grades a vendor on how openly and verifiably they document their process, using only signals a stranger can confirm from public materials. It applies the same discipline as our Research Quality Score, aimed at a different target. RQS measures the quality of the research behind a compound. VTS measures how transparent a vendor is about how they operate. Neither one tells you whether to buy anything.
The Seven Dimensions
| Dimension | What it measures | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Third-Party Testing Practice | Whether the vendor tests at all, how often, and how broadly. Per-batch testing scores highest, then periodic, then occasional spot-checks, then none. Full-catalog coverage scores above flagship-only. The single most predictive signal of whether a vial matches its label, so it carries the most weight. | 30 |
| Batch Traceability & Verification | Whether a customer can tie the vial in hand to a specific result. A scannable code that resolves to the testing lab's own system, showing that exact lot, is the gold standard and hardest signal to fake. Lot-numbered COAs matchable by the buyer score next. Generic "representative" documents with no lot linkage score lowest. | 20 |
| COA Accessibility | How a buyer reaches the COA before purchase. Openly published and searchable scores highest, then behind an email request, then behind an account login, then shown only as an image in a listing (not independently openable or verifiable), then absent entirely. | 15 |
| COA Completeness | What the COA actually shows. Identity confirmation by mass spectrometry plus purity by HPLC, with the underlying chromatogram present, scores highest. Sterility and endotoxin testing where the format warrants it. A bare purity percentage with no method or provenance scores lowest. | 15 |
| Testing Recency | Whether published COAs are dated and current relative to the product on sale. Recent, dated results score highest. Undated or years-old COAs on a currently sold product score lowest. | 10 |
| Policy Transparency | Whether reship and refund terms are published and specific, versus vague or absent. A narrow dimension, but a real transparency signal. | 5 |
| Operational Track Record | Time in market as a proxy for whether an operation is established versus fly-by-night. Verifiable through domain age and public archive history. | 5 |
| Total | 100 |
Score Bands
Community Signal - A Separate Column
Community experience sits beside the score, never inside it, exactly as our Anecdotal Signal Score sits beside RQS. Real-world reports are informative, but they are not verifiable on the same terms as a published document, and letting sentiment move the number would corrupt the discipline that makes the score worth reading. So it lives in its own labeled field, with two streams kept distinct:
Viability Flag
Separate from the score, a vendor can carry a Viability Flag when there is public, verifiable evidence the operation may be defunct: the storefront is down, the domain has lapsed, or a disclosed operating entity shows as dissolved or forfeited in its registering jurisdiction. The flag is an override that can cap the band regardless of a vendor's documented process, because documentation is meaningless if the vendor no longer exists.
Which Vendors Are Scored
A vendor is eligible to be scored whether or not they want to be, and a low score for opacity is a valid, publishable result. This is the rule that keeps the score honest: the moment the roster is limited to vendors who look good, or who pay, the score stops being measurement and becomes marketing. We seed coverage with the vendors people are already trying to evaluate, since that is where the score is most useful.
Every scored point links to the specific public page, COA, or record it was drawn from. If a vendor disputes a result, the evidence is their own published material.
Vendor Scoring Log
Every vendor in the PeptideClear catalog has been scored using the rubric above. Click any vendor to see the full per-dimension breakdown and scoring notes.
Note on vendor links: Links to vendor websites are included for identification and source attribution only - they are the direct sources this scoring draws from. PeptideClear has no affiliate, referral, or commercial relationship with any scored vendor. Clicking a vendor link generates no revenue for PeptideClear. A vendor's presence in this catalog does not constitute an endorsement.