Guidelines and Best Practices for Reporting Factual Errors

Now that you know what qualifies as a factual error, let's talk about guidelines and best practices for reporting factual errors.

Guidelines

Let’s first talk about what factual errors submissions must include.

1

Factual Error

To begin, there can only be one factual error per reporting entry. Reports that include multiple factual errors will be sent back to the reviewer for correction.

2

Location

Next, the location information must be included with the component title, ISBN, page number, hyperlink, and description of the location. The publisher must be able to find the reported content in order to correct it.

3

Description

Finally, there needs to be a brief but clear description of the error. It’s not enough to say, “This is wrong!” You must briefly state what is wrong and what correction should be made.

Best Practices

Your factual error descriptions are shared directly with publishers—the publisher needs to understand exactly what the error is and where to find it without any back-and-forth.

Write in simple, direct sentences to make your points clear. Your submission should be easy for the publisher to understand and act on without additional explanation.
Include only the most relevant information in your submissions to help publishers find the issue quickly.
Maintain a neutral and professional tone.

Keep in mind, your factual error submissions are shared verbatim with the SBOE, so following these best practices when writing your submissions is key.