How errors are reported, assessed and recorded
Corrections Policy
A historical record that cannot be corrected is not a record. This page explains how to report a problem and what happens after you do.
Reporting an error
Send the details to the editorial address on the contact page, with Correction at the start of the subject line. The report is most useful when it includes:
- the title and year of the entry, or a direct link to it
- the specific statement you believe is wrong, quoted exactly
- what the correct information is
- a source that supports the correction, preferably an archive, museum, library or published scholarly work
Reports without a supporting source are still read and still investigated. They simply take longer, because the research has to be done from scratch.
What happens next
| Within 3 working days | The report is acknowledged and assigned for review. |
|---|---|
| Within 14 working days | The claim is checked against the cited sources and against independent documentation. You are told the outcome, including when we conclude the original entry was right. |
| Immediately on confirmation | A confirmed factual error is corrected as soon as it is verified, without waiting for a scheduled update. |
How corrections are recorded
The treatment depends on the seriousness of the error.
- Substantive corrections — a wrong date, a misattributed work, an incorrect studio or an inaccurate claim about significance — are corrected in place and logged below, with the date, what was wrong and what it now says.
- Clarifications — where a statement was accurate but capable of being misread — are noted on the entry itself.
- Minor fixes — spelling, punctuation, broken links and formatting — are made without a log entry.
- Withdrawals — where an event turns out not to be supportable at all — remove the claim and leave a note explaining the removal, rather than deleting the record silently.
Corrections are never silent
A substantive error is never edited away without acknowledgement. The point of a public log is that readers can see the record has been maintained, and can judge how carefully.
Disagreements about interpretation
Not every objection is a correction. Some concern judgment: whether an event deserves the significance claimed for it, or whether an interpretation is the best available reading. These are treated seriously, and where a competing reading is well supported, the entry is revised to acknowledge it. Where we continue to disagree, we say so and explain why.
Correction log
Confirmed substantive corrections are listed here, most recent first.
No corrections recorded yet
No substantive corrections have been logged since publication. This section will list them as they occur, and it will not be cleared.