Report Errors

Error reports are part of maintaining a trustworthy reference. A clear report is more valuable than a perfect diagnosis. Report formula mistakes, sign errors, convention conflicts, broken links, missing citations, unclear assumptions, typo-level mistakes, figure problems, and stale claims.

What to Include

When possible, include:

• the page title or URL path,
• the section heading,
• the formula or sentence in question,
• what seems wrong,
• the expected correction or a source that supports the concern,
• whether the issue affects a result, an example, an exercise, or only wording.

For mathematical or physical errors, include enough detail to reproduce the issue. For broken links or figures, include the failing path. For citation concerns, name the claim that needs support.

Severity Guide

Severity	Examples
Critical	Wrong theorem statement, wrong sign in a central formula, misleading frontier claim, broken canonical page.
High	Incorrect derivation step, missing assumption, convention conflict, exercise solution error.
Medium	Missing citation, ambiguous notation, stale external reference, weak cross-linking.
Low	Typo, minor wording issue, formatting polish, nonblocking style concern.

What Happens Next

Reported issues should be triaged, reproduced when possible, and either fixed or marked for follow-up. If the issue affects a page’s reliability, the page status should be adjusted according to the Versioning and Review Policy.

Corrections that materially affect formulas, conventions, or conclusions should be noted in the Changelog.

Common Mistakes

• Reporting “this is wrong” without naming the page or formula.
• Mixing an interpretive disagreement with a mathematical error.
• Assuming a different convention without checking the convention page.
• Reporting a source disagreement without saying which source and convention are being used.
• Treating a draft page as if it has already passed full review.

References

• Committee on Publication Ethics, Core Practices, for correction and publication-integrity principles.
• The Turing Way Community, The Turing Way: A Handbook for Reproducible, Ethical and Collaborative Data Science, for collaborative maintenance practices.

Exercises

1. A page writes $[\hat x,\hat p]=-i\hbar$ while the convention page states $[\hat x,\hat p]=i\hbar$. What kind of report is this?

Solution

It is a high-severity convention or sign issue, possibly critical if the formula is central to the page’s derivation.

2. A page uses a textbook citation but the formula differs by a Fourier sign. What should the report include?

Solution

Name the page, formula, cited source, and convention mismatch. The fix may be to translate conventions explicitly rather than to change the formula.