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?

Solution 1:

The most polite way of pointing out a mistake in a previously published paper is first to pass it to the editor of that journal along with your well written claims. In this case the editor can take action and make it public such that other people is also aware of this mistake and dont use those results anymore.

It might be the case that the editor doesnt take any action or it doesnt bother him much. In such a case the report should go to the chief editor of that journal indicating all the story. It is quite likely that one of them will solve the problem. However, according to my experience, it is also possible to address the mistakes in the same journal paper most probabily in the "correspondence" part.

Human beings can make mistakes and it is disappointing for a mathematician to have mistakes in his paper. Very great mathematicians can even make mistakes therefore I think any claims should carry the best of politeness.