RULE: Publish a public corrections log + retraction policy. A correction without a process change is theater.
Created 2026-05-22
Rule: Every Candid Creative public artifact (website, KB, client deliverable) is governed by a public corrections log + retraction policy following the CANDID REFERENCE: retraction/correction playbook — 4 magnitudes from typo to fundamental retraction (adapted from COPE). Material corrections trigger a specific editorial-process change — never a silent edit pretending the original was correct.
Why:
- Trust Project / Reach Plc: trust in The Mirror jumped 8 points after adding Trust Indicators including a corrections protocol (Trust Project / Reach Plc UK: trust in The Mirror jumped 8% after adding Trust Indicators)
- COPE August 2025: "The purpose of retraction is to correct the literature... not to punish the authors" (COPE Retraction Guidelines (Aug 2025): "The purpose of retraction is to correct the literature and ensure its integrity, not to punish the authors") — the right disposition to import
- Edelman 2025: 7 in 10 readers expect to be misled (Edelman 2025 Trust Barometer (n=33,000, 28 countries): 7 in 10 believe government/business/journalists deliberately mislead them) — visible corrections are the differentiation signal
- AP/Trust Project standards make corrections visible as a feature, not a bug
How to apply:
- Publish a public Corrections log linked from the candidcreative.ca footer
- Categorize corrections by CANDID REFERENCE: retraction/correction playbook — 4 magnitudes from typo to fundamental retraction (adapted from COPE) magnitude (typo / substantive / material / fundamentally wrong)
- Update
dateModifiedin structured data on every correction - For material corrections: top-of-page notice that persists for at least 90 days
- For retractions: original URL serves the retraction notice; original text preserved in archive
- Process discipline: every material correction traces to a specific editorial-process change. New check, new source-verification step, new automated guard. Document it in the corrections log.
- Quarterly transparency report: corrections issued, sources re-verified, link-rot rate in the KB
Depends on
- reference COPE Retraction Guidelines (Aug 2025): "The purpose of retraction is to correct the literature and ensure its integrity, not to punish the authors"
- reference Trust Project / Reach Plc UK: trust in The Mirror jumped 8% after adding Trust Indicators
- reference Edelman 2025 Trust Barometer (n=33,000, 28 countries): 7 in 10 believe government/business/journalists deliberately mislead them
- reference CANDID REFERENCE: retraction/correction playbook — 4 magnitudes from typo to fundamental retraction (adapted from COPE)