Contact and reports

Routes of contact

What to include in an error report

Each item below exists because it removes a round of correspondence. The exact address identifies the page when two pages cover similar ground; the quoted sentence removes any doubt about which claim is disputed; the source with its publisher and date allows the claim to be re-checked against a document rather than against an opinion; and a note on whether the error could mislead a reader immediately determines where the report goes in the queue.

Before you write

Four kinds of enquiry arrive regularly and are already answered in writing, so a look at the relevant page is usually faster than waiting five working days for the same answer. Whether the site runs courses or issues certificates, and what its material does and does not constitute, is set out on the limitations page. How sources are ranked, how claims are checked and when a page is reviewed is on the protocol page. What is stored on your device, and how to clear it, is listed key by key on the cookies page. The scope of the project, its funding and the areas it deliberately does not cover are on the project page.

How a correction is handled

1. ReceiptThe report is logged with the date, the page, the sentence disputed and the source offered.
2. Check against the originalThe claim is traced back to the document it was written from, and any figure is re-derived rather than compared with the earlier working note.
3. ClassificationThe outcome is recorded as a factual error, a superseded source, an ambiguity in wording, or a difference of interpretation.
4. ActionAn error is corrected with a dated note stating what was wrong and whether the surrounding conclusions change; a superseded source is replaced and the review date advances.
5. ReplyThe person who reported it is told what was done. Where the report is not accepted, the reason is given and a stated disagreement is recorded rather than dismissed.

Permission and reuse requests

Short quotations with attribution need no permission and no notice; the conditions are on the terms page. A request is only necessary for reproducing a page in full, republishing a substantial part elsewhere, or including the material in a product or a training corpus.

A request that can be answered in one exchange names the pages concerned, describes where and in what form the material would appear, states whether the context is commercial, and says how attribution would be given. Requests are answered in writing; permission, where it is given, is specific to what was described rather than general.

Response times

Reports are handled in order of arrival and by seriousness. Receipt is acknowledged where possible and ordinary enquiries are answered within five working days. A report does not automatically produce a correction, but it always produces a documented check against the original sources, and where a report is not accepted the reason is given.

Requests concerning personal data follow the periods set by the applicable data-protection framework and may require proportionate verification of identity, limited to what is necessary to avoid disclosing information to someone not entitled to it.

What cannot be provided

Protecting what you send

Please do not send confidential documents, health information, credentials, or anything that could identify a protected source, either through the form or by electronic mail. Neither channel is more secure than ordinary email, and the form asks for no more than is needed to answer an enquiry.

If you have material that requires protection, approach a publication with the legal and technical arrangements to receive it. This project is a reference resource and is not equipped to act as a recipient for confidential material.