The four levels of error
Not every mistake deserves the same response. A misspelled name and
a wrong dosing interval are not the same event, and treating them
identically either buries the serious one or clutters the page with
notices nobody reads. Every reported error is assigned one of these
four levels by an editor, and the level decides what you see.
Level 1 — Clinical
Something a reader could have acted on
A wrong dose, interval, interaction, contraindication, symptom
or red flag. Anything that could have changed what someone did
about their health.
The claim is removed or the page unpublished the same day,
before we finish investigating. We verify afterwards. A
permanent notice goes at the top of the page, the
article is re-reviewed by a physician in that specialty, and the
correction is published in the log.
The notice you will see
Clinical correction — 2 August 2026. Between 14 June
and 2 August this article stated a screening interval of
five years. Current national guidance is three years for
this age group. The figure has been corrected and the page
re-reviewed by Dr Anita Rowe, MD, Internal Medicine. If you
made a decision based on the earlier figure, speak to your
doctor.
Level 2 — Factual
Wrong, but not clinically actionable
A misattributed study, a wrong date or figure, a misstated
guideline that doesn't change what a reader should do, a
mischaracterised finding.
Corrected within fourteen days, with a dated note at the foot
of the article. The note is permanent — it does not expire and
is not removed when the page is next updated.
The notice you will see
Correction — 2 August 2026. This article originally
attributed the 2023 cohort findings to the University of
Leeds. The study was conducted at the University of Leicester.
The attribution has been corrected.
Level 3 — Record
Directory and profile data
A doctor's credentials, licence status, specialty, hospital
affiliation, languages or consultation availability. Insurer
coverage details. Anything we present as a verified fact about a
person or an organisation rather than about medicine.
The field is corrected, the verification date on that profile
is reset to the day we re-checked it, and a change note appears
on the profile. Where we published a credential we could not
substantiate, the profile is suspended until we can.
The notice you will see
Record updated — 2 August 2026. Board certification
re-verified with the issuing authority. Hospital affiliation
corrected. Verification date reset.
Level 4 — Presentational
Nothing about meaning changes
Typos, broken links, a mislabelled image, formatting, a
duplicated paragraph.
Fixed silently, with no notice. If we published a notice for
every typo, the notices at Levels 1 and 2 would stop carrying
any signal.
The notice you will see
None. The page is simply fixed.
When a page comes down
Some errors cannot be corrected, because the claim the page was
built on turns out not to hold. In that case we retract rather than
rewrite.
A retracted page is unpublished, but the URL stays live. We do not
return a 404, we do not redirect it to a healthier page, and we do
not replace the content with something new at the same address.
Anyone who followed a link, cited us, or saved the page finds an
explanation of what was wrong and why it is gone.
What sits at a retracted URL
Retracted — 2 August 2026. This article has been
withdrawn. On re-review we could not substantiate its central
claim against any source meeting our evidence standard, and the
page should not be relied on. It has not been replaced. Our
editorial standards are set out in our editorial policy.
Deleting a page does not unpublish the error. It only removes the
record that we made it.
What happens, and when
From the moment a report reaches us, three things are on a clock.
Working days, not calendar days, and the first one does not wait for
us to agree with you.
Within 1 day
Acknowledged, and made safe
An editor confirms receipt. If the report is plausibly clinical,
the disputed claim comes off the page immediately — before we
have decided whether you are right.
Within 3 days
Assessed and levelled
An editor assigns a level and, for anything clinical, routes it
to a reviewing physician in the relevant specialty. You are told
which level it was given.
Within 14 days
Corrected or answered
The page is corrected, retracted, or left standing with a
written explanation of why. Either outcome is recorded in the
corrections log.
How to report an error
Anyone can. You do not need an account, a clinical qualification,
or a relationship with us. We do not weigh a report by who sent it —
a patient who noticed something odd and a consultant who spotted a
misread guideline go into the same queue at the same level.
What to include
- The URL of the page.
- The exact sentence or figure you are challenging — quote it,
so we are looking at the same thing.
- What you believe is correct.
- A source, if you have one. If you don't, send the report
anyway; finding the source is our job, not yours.
If you are a doctor listed on Doctiplus and
the error is on your own profile, say so and tell us which field. We
will correct facts about you. We will not add promotional wording,
and we do not remove patient reviews on request.
What we will not do
A corrections policy is only meaningful in the things it rules out.
- Edit anything that changes meaning without a dated, visible
notice.
- Delete or redirect a page to make an error disappear from the
record.
- Backdate a review stamp so a page looks fresher than it was, or
hide how long an error stood.
- Remove a correction notice once time has passed. Notices are
permanent.
- Move faster, slower, or differently on a report because it came
from an advertiser, an insurance partner, or a listed doctor.
- Quietly amend a patient review, or take one down because the
doctor disputed it rather than because it broke a rule.
- Treat a legal threat as a substitute for evidence that we were
wrong.
When we disagree with you
Sometimes we check and conclude the page was right. When that
happens you get a written answer naming the source we relied on, not
a form reply saying the matter is closed.
If the dispute is clinical and you still disagree, say so and it
goes to a second reviewing physician who was not involved in the
original review and does not report to the first. That decision is
final on our side, and it is published in the corrections log with
the reasoning, whichever way it goes — including the times we were
challenged and held our position.
Nothing here affects your right to raise a matter with a medical
regulator, an advertising standards body, or a court. We would
rather you came to us first, but this policy is not a condition of
anything.
The corrections log
Every Level 1 and Level 2 correction, every retraction, and every
challenge we declined is listed in one public, dated, permanent
place. It is not paginated away, not noindexed, and not pruned when
it gets long.
A publisher with an empty corrections log after two years of
publishing is not a publisher that never erred. It is one that isn't
telling you.
Cardiologist