20. Amendments, corrigenda, and errata

20.1 General

There are several ways of changing a published standard:

1. Amendment. A document that adds to, removes from, or alters material in a portion of an existing IEEE standard and may make editorial or technical corrections to that standard.
2. Corrigendum. A document that only corrects editorial errors, technical errors, or ambiguities in an existing IEEE standard.
3. Erratum. A document that contains only corrections of errors introduced during the publishing process of an existing IEEE standard. Errata are not balloted documents and can be accessed via https://standards.ieee.org/standard/index.html. Search for standard number and year of approval to access the web page of the published standard. Errata links are located under the Additional Resources Details section.¹

IEEE SA content publishing staff can assist standard committees in determining whether an amendment or revision is appropriate.

20.2 Amendments and corrigenda

Amendments and corrigenda are independent projects, processed with separate PARs, and balloted independently in accordance with the requirements of these procedures, including submission to the IEEE SA Standards Board.

Amendments and corrigenda provide explicit instructions on how to change the text in an existing base standard or an existing amendment. The editing instructions are important because the user should understand how the changes affect the base standard, particularly because these documents ultimately will be incorporated into the base standard.

Both types of documents have the same format. The following text shall appear at the beginning of either an amendment or a corrigendum:

NOTE—The editing instructions contained in this <amendment/corrigendum> define how to merge the material contained therein into the existing base standard and its amendments to form the comprehensive standard.

The editing instructions are shown in bold italic. Four editing instructions are used: change, delete, insert, and replace. Change is used to make corrections in existing text or tables. The editing instruction specifies the location of the change and describes what is being changed by using strikethrough (to remove old material) and underscore (to add new material). Delete removes existing material. Insert adds new material without disturbing the existing material. Deletions and insertions may require renumbering. If so, renumbering instructions are given in the editing instruction. Replace is used to make changes in figures or equations by removing the existing figure or equation and replacing it with a new one. Editing instructions, change markings, and this NOTE will not be carried over into future editions because the changes will be incorporated into the base standard.

Editing instructions and text indicating the changes to the base document follow the “NOTE. Change bars shall not be included.” (See Annex C for an example of an amendment/corrigendum.) Only material being affected by the changes of the amendment/corrigendum shall be included with the appropriate clause/ subclause headings.

20.2.1 Numbering in amendments and corrigenda

Amendments and corrigenda shall follow the clause numbering outlined in Clause 13. However, if text is inserted between existing consecutive clauses or subclauses, an additional letter may be included in the heads (e.g., if clauses are inserted between Clause 4 and Clause 5, the new clauses would be labeled Clause 4A, Clause 4B, Clause 4C). This would also apply to subclauses (e.g., subclauses inserted between 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 would be labeled 4.1.3a, 4.1.3b, 4.1.3c). This numbering may be more appropriate for amendments with extensive changes that would affect numbering throughout the base standard (so it would be difficult to outline all the numbering changes that would occur), or for amendments to standards where exact references to clauses, figures, equations, and tables are required.

Additional amendments to a base standard may insert text between already amended clauses or subclauses. In these cases, numbering of clauses may become very complex. IEEE SA content publishing staff can assist with complex numbering formats. Working groups should consider a revision of the document in these instances. For tables and figures in amendments and corrigenda, clause or subclause numbering should follow the numbering outlined in 16.2 and 17.2. However, if an amendment or corrigenda inserts a table between consecutive tables, or a figure between consecutive figures, the addition of a letter may be used.

Exceptions may be made for numbering established in previously published amendments. Exceptions shall only be valid until a revision occurs, after which the numbering described in Clause 13 will be implemented. Table 3 shows appropriate numbering formats that may be used for amendments and corrigenda. (See Annex C for examples of amendment numbering.)

20.2.2 Editorial instructions in amendments and corrigenda

Amendments submitted for ballot shall clearly indicate the changes to the existing standard. Editorial instructions shall clearly outline how the changes should be implemented in the base standard, as modified by all previously approved amendments or corrigenda. The instructions shall not require interpretation by the IEEE SA content publishing staff, by the balloter, or by any user. Therefore, the placement of the changes, as well as any required renumbering, shall be delineated in an unambiguous manner.

Editorial instructions shall precede all changes, and should begin with one of the four types of editing instructions, which are formatted in bold italic: change, insert, delete, and for figures or equations, replace.

Change shall be used when text or tables are being modified therefore, strikethrough (for deletions) and underscore (for insertions) should be indicated.

Insert shall be used to add new text, equations, tables, or figures in the standard.

Delete shall be used to remove existing text, equations, tables, or figures without exchanging the information (i.e., it is not permissible to delete a paragraph and insert a new one rather than showing the changes in the paragraph using the change instruction).

Replace shall be used only for figures and equations by removing the existing figure or equation and replacing it with a new one. (See Annex C for examples of editorial instructions in amendments or corrigenda.)

IEEE SA content publishing staff is available for questions that arise while preparing these documents.

20.2.3 Amendment versus revision

The greater the number of amendments or corrigenda associated with a standard, the more complex the editing instructions become for all subsequent amendments and corrigenda. If three amendments to a standard exist however, working groups are encouraged to revise the standard rather than develop an additional amendment. Refer to 8.1.2 and 9.1 of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual for additional information on amendments, corrigenda, and revisions.