Corrections

We publish on subjects where being wrong has consequences. When we get something wrong, we fix it, and we make the fix visible rather than quietly editing the page.

How to report an error

Use our contact form and choose Editorial correction as the subject. Please include the page address and, if you can, the specific sentence and what you believe the correct information to be. A source helps and makes it faster, but it is not required.

Anyone can report an error. You do not need to be a subject expert, and you do not need to give a reason for asking.

How quickly we respond

We acknowledge every correction report within two business days. We investigate and either correct the article or explain why we believe it is accurate within five business days of that acknowledgement.

If a claim is serious enough that leaving it up could cause harm while we check, we remove or annotate it first and investigate afterwards.

How corrections are marked

A corrected article carries a dated note explaining what was changed and why. We do not remove the note once the correction is made, and we do not silently overwrite text on a page that has already been published and read.

Where a correction is minor, for example a typographical error or a broken link, we fix it without a note. Where it changes the meaning of a claim, the note goes on the page.

What is not a correction

Disagreement with a conclusion is not an error, and we will say so rather than change an article to avoid an argument. We will always engage with the point, and if the disagreement reveals that a claim was overstated or under-sourced, that is a correction and we treat it as one.