For a publication to be useful, the information it contains must be accurate. Since scholarly publications are often at the leading edge in developing fields, however, it is unrealistic to expect that everything in print is completely accurate, no matter how meticulous the writers are.

A reasonable standard of accuracy is that the author or authors have made a "good faith effort" to ensure that the information presented is of the highest quality. A "good faith effort" is determined by research standards within a given discipline. Typically, the effort includes such techniques as double- or triple-checking calculations or other analysis (by independent approaches where possible), checking the accuracy of transcribed equations, data, and facts, and careful proofreading of content and presentation.

A mechanism for conveying corrections built into the publication process is the erratum. If an author discovers (or is made aware of) a substantive error associated with a journal article, a correction, called an erratum, can be printed in a subsequent issue. Ideally, the erratum will save the time of other professionals in the discipline who might otherwise rely on information found in the erroneous publication.

While publishing an erratum in response to a newly discovered error is clearly the ethical action to take, it is no guarantee that all readers of the original paper will find it. Locating an erratum associated with a particular paper generally requires a concerted effort on the part of the reader since it is published separately from the original paper. Indeed, becoming aware of the erratum in the first place may be a matter of chance. As more journals become published electronically on the internet, a more dynamic form, it will be easier to link an erratum to its original paper, thus increasing the chances that it is read. The increased usefulness of the erratum makes its role in quality control that much more significant.

When citing a corrected paper, it is also helpful to cite the erratum. This directs the reader's attention to the correction if he or she decides to look up the paper. It also lets the reader know that you are aware of the corrections contained in the erratum and have taken them into consideration (if necessary) when you wrote your own paper.