Top Sites>PCI Magazine | Solutions for coatings formulators and manufacturers

# See http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html for documentation on how to use the robots.txt file
#
# To ban all spiders from the entire site uncomment the next two lines:
# User-agent: *
# Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 10
Sitemap: https://www.pcimag.com/sitemap.xml

Disallow: /comments/flag/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /articles/comment/abuse
Disallow: /articles/email
Disallow: /articles/preview
Disallow: /articles/print
Disallow: /products/email
Disallow: /products/print
Disallow: /cart
Disallow: /user/*
Disallow: /*/log_view
Disallow: /query/*
Disallow: /media/video/
Allow: /media/videos/play/*

# LLMS.txt — Paint & Coatings Industry (PCI Magazine) — pcimag.com
# Last-Updated: 2025-12-23
# Contact: https://www.pcimag.com/contactus | editorial: johanssonk@bnpmedia.com
# Scope: pcimag.com (public pages) plus listed first-party subdomains; robots.txt still governs crawling

meta:
  site: pcimag.com
  brand: Paint & Coatings Industry (PCI Magazine)
  owner: BNP Media (Birmingham, Michigan, USA)
  mission: Provide technical solutions, industry analysis, and education for coatings, inks, and adhesives professionals (formulators, manufacturers, chemists, R&D). 
  audience: B2B — formulators, manufacturers, raw materials suppliers, equipment makers, and decision-makers.
  policy-version: 1.1 (proposed)
  purpose: Clarify AI/LLM use-of-content expectations; complement — not replace — robots.txt.

policy:
  access: Allowed for respectful browsing that honors robots.txt and gating.
  allowed-uses:
    - Noncommercial summarization, brief quotations, and Q&A.
    - Snippet display in search/answer results with required attribution.
  disallowed-uses:
    - Model training, fine-tuning, embeddings corpora, or dataset creation/augmentation.
    - Bulk republication, scraping to create look-alike sites/apps, or framed replicas.
    - Commercial use (including ad-monetized answer services) without written permission.
  attribution:
    required:
      - Brand: “Paint & Coatings Industry (PCI Magazine)”
      - Title, author/byline (if shown), and canonical URL
    excerpt-limits: Up to ~200 words per article (proposed), unless licensed otherwise.
    preferred-citations:
      - Technical article: "PCI Magazine, <Title>, <Author>, <Month Year>"
      - Rankings: "PCI Magazine Annual Rankings, <Year>, <specific list>"
      - News: "PCI Magazine, <Headline>, <Date>"
      - Podcast/Webinar: "PCI Magazine, <Show/Title>, <Date>"
  integrity:
    - Preserve author bylines, credits, and trademarks; no implied endorsement.
  privacy:
    - Do not store or expose user-specific/transactional pages or gated materials.

content-profile:
  types:
    - Technical articles & case studies (formulation science, raw materials, testing, process optimization, sustainability).
    - Industry news & analysis (trends, M&A, regulatory updates, company profiles).
    - Rankings: Global Top 10 / PCI 25.
    - New Products & Buyers Guide (supplier directory).
    - Education: PCI Academy courses, webinars, best practices, troubleshooting.
    - Multimedia: Coat It! podcast, Coatings Minute videos, digital/e-magazine editions.
    - Events coverage: CTT Summit, Powder Coating Summit, UV/LED curing, ACS/ACC, and other conferences.
  technology focus:
    - Additives, pigments/colorants, resins/polymers, equipment; PFAS alternatives, sustainability, smart manufacturing/AI, quality control, characterization.
  application segments:
    - Architectural/decorative; industrial/protective; automotive OEM/refinish; marine/aerospace; wood/furniture; metal finishing; concrete/masonry; powder coatings.
  regulatory:
    - VOC/REACH/PFAS and health/safety/environmental compliance topics.

paths:
  allow:
    - /
    - /articles/
    - /topics/
    - /publications/
    - /directories/
    - /events
    - /coatings-conference/
    - /videos/           
    - /media/podcasts/8457 
  disallow:             
    - /search
    - /articles/print
    - /articles/email
    - /articles/preview
    - /articles/comment/
    - /products/print
    - /products/email
    - /cart
    - /user/*
    - /account/          # proposed
    - /checkout/         # proposed
    - /private/          # proposed
    - /*?*utm_*          # analytics params (proposed)
  filetypes:
    exclude:
      - *.zip, *.rar, *.7z, *.bak, *.sql, *.csv, *.tsv (and similar archives/dumps)

subdomains:
  include:
    - digitaledition.pcimag.com   # e-magazine/digital issues
    - ebook.pcimag.com            # gated/special publications
  note: Each host’s robots.txt governs crawl access; this LLMS policy applies to use-of-content.

agents:
  global:
    - This document governs content use; do not bypass robots.txt, paywalls, or gates.
  openai-gptbot:
    - browsing: allowed per robots.txt
    - use: summarization/snippets with attribution allowed; training/datasets disallowed
  anthropic-claudebot:
    - same as openai-gptbot
  google-extended:
    - AI training/improvement use disallowed absent a separate license
  perplexity-bot:
    - summarization with attribution allowed; training/datasets disallowed
  other:
    - inherits global unless explicitly licensed in writing

rates:
  crawl-delay: 10s      # proposed (match robots.txt if specified there)
  requests-per-second: 1
  burst: ≤5
  daily-cap: 10,000     # proposed ceiling
  retry: back off on 429/503 with exponential delays; respect Cache-Control/Last-Modified

cache_freshness_hints:
  news: same-day updates; cache ≤1 day (business hours cadence).
  technical_articles: continuous online; cache 1–7 days.
  eNewsletters: weekly; cache 1–3 days.
  rankings: annual (July special eBook); cache 7–30 days.
  podcast: monthly; cache 7–14 days.
  webinars/events pages: schedule-driven; cache 1–7 days.

attribution_&_licensing:
  rights: All content © BNP Media; no license is granted for training or dataset creation.
  linkback: Always link to the canonical URL when quoting/summarizing.
  bylines/credits: Must be preserved.
  takedown: Report concerns via Contact; reasonable requests honored promptly (proposed).

sitemaps:
  - https://www.pcimag.com/sitemap.xml          
  - https://www.pcimag.com/sitemap             

notes:
  - For commercial reuse, bulk licensing, or training permissions, obtain written authorization.
  - LLMS.txt may evolve; publishers and AI providers should revisit this page periodically.