How Zombie Facts is paid for, what we claim and what we don't, and what happens when we get something wrong.
Zombie Facts is independent. It has no sponsor and no political or commercial backer. The only running cost is the domain name. There are no ads, no trackers that follow you around the web, and nothing to buy.
A case says one checkable thing: a source was retracted (or a claim was rated false by a fact-checker), and a page still uses it without telling readers. Every case links to the official retraction notice or the fact-check, and to the exact place it is still used.
A case is not an accusation against the people who wrote the page. Most zombie facts are honest leftovers: the citation went in before the retraction, and nobody went back. Some pages cite a retracted paper on purpose, to discuss it. That's why a person reads every case before we contact anyone, and why some cases end as "reviewed, no fix needed".
If we get something wrong, we fix it on the page, say what changed, and log it below with the date. We don't quietly delete mistakes. Errors in the data (a wrong date, a misread quote, a paper that isn't really retracted) are corrected as soon as we confirm them, and the daily build carries the fix to every page.
If you think a case is wrong, because the citation is there on purpose, the retraction doesn't touch the claim, or the source has been reinstated, tell us. Authors, editors and outlets are all welcome.
Prefer Wikipedia? Reply under our note on the article's talk page. We read those replies every day.
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