Erratum

An erratum (plural errata) is a published notice that corrects a mistake in an earlier article, report, broadcast, or academic paper. In journalism and scholarly publishing, errata are the standard mechanism for fixing factual inaccuracies — misspelled names, wrong dates, misattributed quotes, miscalculated figures, or production errors such as a missing chart — without rewriting or retracting the original work.

The distinction matters for researchers. An erratum typically denotes an error introduced by the publisher (e.g., a typesetting mistake), while a corrigendum denotes an error introduced by the author. A retraction is more severe and withdraws the work entirely, usually for fundamental flaws, fabrication, or plagiarism. Most major outlets and journals — including The New York Times, The Guardian, Nature, The Lancet, and Science — maintain dedicated corrections sections or append correction notices to the original online article.

Best practice in serious newsrooms is to:

• Date and label the correction clearly.
• Preserve the original text so readers can see what changed.
• Specify exactly what was wrong and what the accurate information is.
• Link the correction from both the standalone notice and the original piece.

For Model UN delegates, IR students, and junior analysts, errata are a useful research signal. When citing a news article or journal paper, you should check whether an erratum or corrigendum has been issued — citing a figure that was later corrected undermines a position paper or briefing. Databases such as PubMed and Crossref flag corrections directly on the record, and Retraction Watch tracks the more serious end of the spectrum.

Errata also appear in official documents: the UN Secretariat routinely issues corrigenda to General Assembly and Security Council documents (designated with the suffix Corr.1, Corr.2, etc.), and treaty depositaries publish procès-verbaux of rectification to fix errors in authenticated treaty texts.