sherafy.com welcomes substantive challenges to its reporting, research, analysis, calculations, and conclusions.
If you believe something we published is factually wrong, based on weak evidence, missing important context, outdated, misleadingly interpreted, or creates a legitimate privacy concern, you can submit an editorial challenge directly from the article.
The goal is simple:
Show us specifically what you think is wrong, why you think it is wrong, and what evidence would produce a better answer.
A challenge does not need to prove that an entire article is wrong. Some of the most useful submissions identify one sentence, source, assumption, calculation, or piece of missing context that materially changes part of the analysis.
How to challenge an article
At the bottom of participating sherafy.com articles, select Challenge this article.
The challenge form lets you identify whether your concern applies to:
- the article as a whole;
- a particular section; or
- a specific passage.
If your concern involves only one statement, selecting or quoting that statement is usually the most useful approach.
You will then be asked to explain the nature of your concern and provide the evidence supporting it.
What kinds of challenges can I submit?
Factual error
Use this when you believe a statement presented as fact is incorrect.
Examples include:
- an incorrect date;
- a wrong number;
- a mistaken identity;
- an inaccurate description of an event;
- an incorrect quotation or attribution;
- a calculation error; or
- a statement contradicted by stronger evidence.
Whenever possible, provide the source showing the correct information.
Source or evidence problem
Use this when the issue is not necessarily the wording of the claim itself but the evidence supporting it.
For example:
- a source does not actually support the statement for which it is cited;
- a secondary source mischaracterizes the underlying document;
- a study is being described more strongly than its methodology permits;
- a cited document has been superseded;
- important contrary evidence exists;
- a source has a material conflict that was not disclosed; or
- the article relies on evidence that you believe is unreliable.
A strong evidence challenge identifies both the questionable source and the better evidence.
Missing context
Use this when a statement may technically be accurate but leaves out information important enough to materially change how a reasonable reader would understand it.
Not every omitted detail is missing context.
The question is whether the missing information meaningfully affects the article’s factual picture, interpretation, or conclusion.
Interpretation or conclusion
sherafy.com frequently goes beyond simply listing facts. We analyze evidence and, where appropriate, draw conclusions from chronology, behavior, incentives, contradictions, quantitative evidence, and the overall pattern of facts.
Those conclusions can be challenged.
If you believe an inference does not logically follow from the evidence, explain why.
A different opinion by itself does not establish an error. The strongest challenges show that:
- important evidence points in another direction;
- an inference relies on an unsupported assumption;
- relevant alternatives were not adequately considered;
- the evidence was weighted improperly; or
- the stated confidence is stronger than the underlying evidence supports.
If the evidence supports your criticism, we want to know.
Outdated information
Some sherafy.com articles deal with subjects that continue changing after publication.
Use this option when:
- a law or regulation changed;
- a court issued a later ruling;
- new scientific evidence became available;
- updated data materially changes a calculation;
- a company or agency changed a policy;
- an investigation produced significant new evidence; or
- another later development makes part of the article obsolete.
Please provide the newer source and, when possible, its publication or effective date.
Privacy concern
Use this when published material raises a legitimate privacy issue.
Examples can include:
- information attributed to the wrong person;
- unnecessary publication of sensitive personal information;
- exposure of information that creates a credible safety concern;
- personal information that may have been published without adequate editorial justification;
- information identifying a private individual when naming that person is not materially necessary to explain the story, establish accountability, or understand the underlying facts; or
- another privacy issue requiring editorial review.
When a person asks to have their name removed, we may do so where the identity adds little or no substantive value to the article and removing it does not materially affect accuracy, accountability, or the reader’s understanding. We generally try to handle reasonable requests of this kind in good faith, even when the information is already public.
A privacy concern does not automatically mean that accurate reporting will be removed. Journalism sometimes legitimately includes personal information when it is relevant to matters of public interest.
We will consider the nature of the information, its accuracy, its relevance to the article, the public interest, potential harm, applicable law, and our editorial standards.
When submitting a privacy concern, avoid sending additional sensitive information that is not necessary to explain the problem.
For a private matter that should not be included in an ordinary editorial submission, you may instead contact [email protected].
Other material concern
Use this when the problem does not fit one of the categories above but could materially affect the accuracy, fairness, evidentiary strength, or usefulness of the article.
Explain the issue as specifically as possible.
What should I put in the challenge?
A strong challenge generally contains four things.
1. Identify the claim
Tell us exactly what you are challenging.
Quoting the relevant sentence or identifying the section is much more useful than saying that an entire article is wrong.
2. Explain the problem
Explain why you believe the statement, evidence, or conclusion needs to change.
Be specific.
Instead of:
This is misleading.
Something like this is considerably more useful:
The article says the report measured IQ, but the study’s stated outcome was a different cognitive assessment. Describing the result as an IQ change therefore overstates what the researchers actually measured.
3. Provide evidence
This is the most important part.
Whenever possible, provide at least one source that allows us to independently evaluate your claim.
Strong sources can include:
- original studies;
- government records;
- court filings;
- official datasets;
- corporate filings;
- original documents;
- contemporaneous records;
- complete interviews or recordings;
- technically authoritative documentation; or
- high-quality independent reporting.
You can provide multiple sources.
A source does not have to agree with sherafy.com to be considered. What matters is the quality of the evidence.
4. Tell us what would improve the article
The form gives you an optional space to propose a correction or improvement.
You do not need to rewrite the article for us.
Even a short explanation such as:
Change “proved” to “found an association” and explain that the study was observational.
can be very useful.
Do I have to give my name?
No.
Providing your name is optional.
We do require an email address so that an editor or researcher can contact you if clarification or additional evidence is needed.
Your email address is not intended for publication merely because you submitted a challenge.
If you provide your name, the form may also ask whether you would like sherafy.com to credit you if your contribution materially assists the article.
Choosing to be credited does not guarantee that your name will appear. Whether attribution is appropriate depends on how the information is ultimately used.
Can I challenge an article anonymously?
You may submit a challenge without providing your name, although an email address is still required for follow-up.
If your circumstances require stronger source protection than an ordinary web form provides, do not place highly sensitive information into the challenge form.
See our Contact page for information about sensitive source communications.
What happens after I submit a challenge?
A submission enters sherafy.com’s editorial review process.
Depending on the issue, we may:
- check the cited evidence;
- return to the article’s original sources;
- examine primary documents;
- reproduce a calculation;
- review newer evidence;
- contact you for clarification;
- consult the original contributor or researcher;
- seek additional sources;
- accept part of the challenge while rejecting another part;
- update the article;
- publish a correction or clarification;
- add context without changing the original conclusion; or
- determine that no change is warranted.
A challenge does not automatically cause an article to be changed or removed.
The relevant question is whether the evidence justifies a change.
What happens if the challenge is correct?
We correct substantive errors.
The appropriate response depends on the significance of the issue.
A minor problem may require a simple edit.
A material factual error may require a correction notice or a more substantial revision.
New information may be handled as an update rather than a correction when the original article was accurate based on the information available at the time.
Our broader approach is explained in the sherafy.com Editorial Standards.
What if only part of my challenge is correct?
That is completely fine.
Editorial disputes are not necessarily all-or-nothing.
A reader may be correct that a statistic is outdated while being incorrect about the larger conclusion, or may identify an important missing source without disproving the evidence already presented.
We evaluate the individual claims and evidence rather than treating every submission as something that must be wholly accepted or wholly rejected.
What if I simply disagree with the article?
You are still welcome to challenge the reasoning.
sherafy.com does not require readers to agree with its conclusions.
But disagreement and factual error are different things.
If you believe a conclusion is wrong, the most useful submission explains why the evidence supports a different conclusion.
Will sherafy.com respond to every challenge?
Not necessarily.
sherafy.com is a small publication, and the volume and complexity of submissions can vary substantially.
We prioritize challenges that present specific, verifiable evidence capable of materially affecting published work.
We may correct or update an article without separately responding to every person who raised the issue.
Can someone use the challenge process to demand removal of criticism?
No.
The challenge process exists to improve accuracy and evidence, not to create a private veto over legitimate journalism.
Being criticized, investigated, named, or disagreed with does not by itself establish grounds for removal.
At the same time, people and organizations discussed in our reporting are welcome to identify factual errors, provide documents, dispute evidence, explain discrepancies, or present information we may not previously have had.
We will evaluate that evidence under the same standards we apply to other sources.
What submissions may be declined?
We may decline or disregard submissions that are primarily:
- spam;
- advertising;
- repetitive submissions without new evidence;
- threats or harassment;
- knowingly fabricated material;
- attempts to obtain unauthorized access to systems or source information;
- irrelevant political or ideological messaging;
- demands unsupported by identifiable evidence; or
- material unrelated to the challenged article.
Strong criticism is not a problem.
Lack of evidence usually is.
How is my submission handled?
Challenge submissions may be stored in sherafy.com systems and delivered to editorial personnel by email.
Information may be retained as reasonably necessary for editorial review, correspondence, security, recordkeeping, correction history, or related legitimate purposes.
For additional information, see our Policies, Privacy & Terms.
Our standard
The challenge process follows the same principle that governs sherafy.com’s reporting:
The conclusion should follow the strongest available evidence.
If stronger evidence shows that something we published is wrong, we want to correct it.
If a challenge raises a genuine uncertainty, we want the article to reflect that uncertainty.
And if the existing evidence remains stronger after the challenge is reviewed, we will not manufacture a correction simply because someone disagrees with the result.
You can submit a challenge directly from the Challenge this article section on participating sherafy.com articles.