Timeline for answer to How do I fix someone's published error? by Mike Shulman
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
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9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 13, 2010 at 5:02 | comment | added | Andy Putman | @Mike : Sorry for the misinterpretation! It sounds like our thinking is the same. | |
| Jul 13, 2010 at 4:32 | comment | added | Mike Shulman | The original question made it clear that the author had already been corresponded with and had acknowledged the error, so I was assuming that as a given in my response. I agree that it is bad form to proclaim an error publically before contacting the author about it; I thought the question was more about how to get the word out about a correction after the author has already agreed that it is needed, but seems disinclined to write it up him/herself. | |
| Jul 12, 2010 at 19:03 | comment | added | Andy Putman | I think it is bad form to post a public claim on the internet (even on a wiki) that a paper has a mistake without first corresponding with the author. The only counterexamples to this would be posting errata for old, famous papers. | |
| Jul 12, 2010 at 6:19 | comment | added | Mike Shulman | (Please tell me if you think I'm totally off base here and people would be offended by this behavior... but it seems reasonable to me.) | |
| Jul 12, 2010 at 6:17 | comment | added | Mike Shulman | Regarding what first: if I know the author and/or expect they understand wikis, and if I found the correction myself or it is easy to find, I might feel comfortable just wikiing it and then notifying them. If I'm worried they might react badly, I might tell them in advance. And if the correction is substantial and is their work, I would probably ask for permission before posting the correction itself (as opposed to the fact of the error). Re: waiting time, how long is it ever reasonable to wait for a response to an email (or whatever)? A week or two? A month? | |
| Jul 12, 2010 at 5:59 | comment | added | Mike Shulman | Certainly, it's polite to notify the author. The point I was trying to make is that unlike publishing (or arXiv-posting) a correction, writing something on a wiki yourself is not taking away a privilege normally reserved to the author, so s/he shouldn't object to it. It's common and expected to write on a wiki about mathematics that other people have done, and that may include organizing it in a different way or making incremental improvements -- why shouldn't that include correcting errors? | |
| Jul 11, 2010 at 13:45 | comment | added | Peter Shor | I think one should really notify the author first. The hard part then is if the author (a) doesn't do anything reasonable and (b) even after some prodding, doesn't agree to let you do anything reasonable. | |
| Jul 11, 2010 at 6:09 | comment | added | Gerhard Paseman | Thank you for your suggestion. To be clear, do you put up the page and then notify the author? Or vice-versa? One point on which I want to get some community reaction is how long after notifying the author do I wait before doing anything afterward. What is your take on this point? Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2010.07.10 | |
| Jul 11, 2010 at 5:54 | history | answered | Mike Shulman | CC BY-SA 2.5 |