Corrections & errata
A scholarly record is only as good as its willingness to be corrected. The lodge welcomes documented corrections to its published work.
The lodge welcomes corrections
No careful publisher believes its record is free of error, and the lodge does not. We would rather be corrected than be wrong in print, and we treat a well-founded correction as a contribution to the work, not an embarrassment to it.
This applies to everything the lodge publishes — the Transactions, the catalogue's records, and the historical copy on this site.
A correction needs evidence
Because the lodge's standard is evidence, so is its standard for changing the record. A correction should cite what it relies on — the document, the source, the reasoning — exactly as a paper would. “I think this is wrong” is a welcome prompt to look again; a sourced correction is what lets the lodge act.
Minor corrections and substantive errata
The lodge distinguishes two kinds of change. A minor correction — a misspelled name, a transposed date, a broken reference — is simply fixed, and the record notes that it was. A substantive erratum — a claim that the evidence does not bear, a misreading that changes an argument — is recorded openly, so that a reader of the original sees what was found and when.
The principle is that the record should never quietly change underneath a reader. What a correction touches, and why, stays visible.
How to submit a correction
Write to the lodge through the contact page with the item, the specific point, and the evidence behind it. The Secretary directs it to the editor, who weighs it as the work warrants and records the outcome. You will hear back, whether or not the correction is adopted.
Found something to correct?
Send the item, the point, and the source. A documented correction is always welcome.