# How to address mistakes in published papers?

I have recently discovered some mistakes in a published maths article. I have contacted the author pointing out politely my concerns, but I got no specific answer, just a "polite" one, that the aspects I am addressing are clarified in some of his other papers (without mentioning which are these papers). Although my remarks where specific and could have been answered with a simple counter-argument (if there was any), the author avoided a direct answer. What is also concerning is that these errors are "copied" by others who base their research on this published paper.

My question is how do you signal these errors to the community? What is the right process if the authors avoids to take credit?

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How about writing to the editor of the journal in which the paper with errors was published? Of course, you need to be absolutely sure that it is the author who is mistaken, and not you. –  Guess who it is. Aug 8 '12 at 8:26
Presumably you are writing a paper of your own on some related research. If so, it would be acceptable to mention in passing the error in the other article, and what the correct statement/argument should be ( or what a counterexample to the other author's claimed result is). If you do that, though, you should send the other author a copy of the preprint of your paper. –  Geoff Robinson Aug 8 '12 at 8:50
Is it a relatively recent paper, or something older? Is there a MathSciNet review of the paper? If so, does it mention anything? –  Arthur Fischer Aug 8 '12 at 10:17
@ArthurFischer: The paper in from 2011, it is indexed in MathSciNet and it labeled as Reviewed in 2012, yet the review is only a copy of the abstract (i.e., Summary: " ..."). –  digital-Ink Aug 8 '12 at 10:41