Corrections policy
Automated classification makes mistakes. Here is how to get them fixed.
Why this page exists
GCA classifies events automatically. Automated attribution, geolocation and filtering all produce errors, and on a platform covering armed conflict those errors matter. Treating them as exceptions would be dishonest; they are an expected output of the method described in our methodology.
What can be corrected
- Wrong side attribution — an event credited to the wrong party.
- Wrong location — a misresolved place name, or a point in the wrong country.
- Wrong date or time — an event placed outside its actual window.
- Non-event — commentary, analysis or unrelated news mapped as an event.
- Duplicate — the same event mapped several times from different reports.
- Retracted source — the originating outlet has withdrawn or corrected its report.
- Distressing content — an excerpt or description that should not be displayed.
How to report an error
Write to corrections@globalconflictawareness.com. Include, where possible: the theatre, the date, the event as displayed, what is wrong, and a source supporting the correction. A screenshot helps. No account is required and no form is imposed.
Handling and timescales
- Acknowledgement within 3 working days.
- Factual errors — corrected or removed as soon as verified, typically within 5 working days.
- Retracted or withdrawn source material — removed on confirmation, without waiting for full analysis.
- Systematic errors — where a report reveals a fault in the classification rules rather than a one-off, the rule is changed and the affected history is reprocessed. This takes longer, and we will say so.
What we do with a correction
We prefer to fix the cause rather than the symptom. A single mis-attributed event is often the visible part of a filtering or weighting fault affecting many others; where that is the case we amend the pipeline and reprocess, rather than editing one record and moving on.
Where an event is removed or substantially amended after publication, the change is recorded. We do not silently delete.
What is not a correction
Disagreement with a source's reporting is a matter for that source. GCA reflects public reporting and links to it; where an outlet's account is disputed, the dispute belongs with the outlet. We will, however, remove an item whose originating publication has retracted it.