Corrections
Reporting an error, and what happens next
Reference entries are corrected against sources, not against opinion. A report that names a source and a location is examined in the same way as any other reading; a report without one is recorded as a question until a source is found.
How to report
Use the contact page and quote the entry's address, the statement concerned, and — wherever possible — the source and the exact place in it that contradicts or qualifies the statement. Reports are acknowledged and given a reference.
How a report is examined
The cited source is consulted directly. If it supports the report, the statement is re-decided with the new reading recorded beside the earlier ones; if the sources now disagree, the disagreement is shown rather than resolved by preference. If the source cannot be obtained, the statement is marked as questioned, not changed.
No silent edits
A corrected entry keeps its earlier revisions. The revision history of an entry lists what changed, on what evidence, and when; nothing is removed from the record to make a correction look as though it had always been so.
What is not corrected
Statements that a source itself qualifies ('circa', 'attributed to') are not made more precise on request. Values found only in community databases or in unsourced summaries are not admitted, whichever direction they would move the entry.
Reports concerning rights in an image or a text, rather than the accuracy of a statement, are handled under the sources and licences policy.