The first report is not the final word.
If you return to this research, you'll want to know exactly which document you used. The preliminary and corrected final reports require separate citations. Keeping those references precise makes the research easier to revisit or share without confusing two distinct documents.
Saving and exporting the work depend on the tools and permissions available.
How do you keep one citation correct across a revision?
Two reports about one derailment are two documents, not two editions of one. This journey builds citations that survive a correction, then separates citation from saving and sharing.
See the subject in Counterpedia East Palestine · research Entry · Research · not admitted; saved work separately authorizedOr begin with step 1 ↓A reading exercise
Two reports, two citations
Compare the preliminary and corrected final reports. What details would let someone return to the exact document you used?
NTSB preliminary report
The preliminary report is RRD23MR005. Keep its title and date; do not silently replace it with the final report.
NTSB · Preliminary Report RRD23MR005 (23 Feb 2023) Original publisher materialNTSB corrected final report
The final report is RIR-24-05 and was corrected later. Record the final report and its correction separately from the preliminary report.
NTSB · Final Report RIR-24-05 (25 Jun 2024; corrected 23 Jul 2024) Original publisher materialSee the distinction
A citation tells someone which document and edition you mean; it is not the same as saving or sharing your work.
Carry this forwardName the exact report first, then say whether saving, retrieval or sharing was available.
Follow the trail
- 01
Open the preliminary report
The 3 February 2023 East Palestine derailment is described in separate NTSB preliminary and final reports. Open the preliminary report, dated 23 February 2023, and record the NTSB identifier, the publication date and the scope. This is the document people cite first and often keep citing after it is superseded.
Open NTSB · Preliminary Report RRD23MR005 (23 Feb 2023) Original publisher material
Keep: The preliminary report's identifier, date, issuer, and scope.
- 02
Open the final report and its correction
Record the final report's identifier and its date, 25 June 2024, and then the correction date, since the final report was subsequently corrected. In June 2024 the NTSB attributed the derailment to a failed wheel bearing and examined decisions about the vent-and-burn operation. Note what the correction changed; a corrected reissue is still a different document from the preliminary report.
Open NTSB · Final Report RIR-24-05 (25 Jun 2024; corrected 23 Jul 2024) Original publisher material
Keep: The final report identifier, June date, corrected edition, and any verified changes.
- 03
Build two citations
Write one citation per document, each naming the report, its identifier, its date and the edition you used, including any correction. Do not cite the incident alone, do not merge the two into a single reference, and do not silently replace the preliminary report with the final one. For each statement, record which report and edition supports it.
Open NTSB · Preliminary Report RRD23MR005 (23 Feb 2023) Original publisher material
Open NTSB · Final Report RIR-24-05 (25 Jun 2024; corrected 23 Jul 2024) Original publisher material
Keep: Two separate citations, each tied to its document and edition.
- 04
Distinguish citation from retention
Decide which action you intend: citation, private saving, public sharing or export. A citation identifies a document. When an eligible save is available, confirm whether it retains your work, a reference or a result; saving a citation does not mean the report itself was stored. Sharing gives a recipient access to the permitted material, and export moves the specified result out. Check what a later reader or recipient can actually inspect, with the edition and visibility rules preserved.
Keep: The operation attempted and what a recipient could actually access.
- 05
Record what you could not do
Keep the object identity, version, access context and recipient-visible scope with whichever operation you chose. If saving, retrieval or recipient sharing is not available to you, state that explicitly instead of implying the workflow completed; a citation-only finish is still useful when it identifies the exact report and edition. Treating saving and sharing as equivalent loses edition identity or exposes private material.
Keep: A citation-only finish if saving or sharing did not run; no implied retention.
Open the material
- East Palestine · research EntryResearch · not admitted; saved work separately authorized
- East Palestine · research dossierResearch · not admitted
- NTSB · Preliminary Report RRD23MR005 (23 Feb 2023)Original publisher material
- NTSB · Final Report RIR-24-05 (25 Jun 2024; corrected 23 Jul 2024)Original publisher material
Research material is not admitted evidence; publisher links identify someone else’s document.
What to notice
- A preliminary report and a final report are separate documents.
- A correction is not a new edition of a Counterpedia record.
- Citation, saving, retrieval and sharing are distinct operations.
- A public citation, a private saved result, a share link and an export may each have different visibility and permission rules.
A useful finish
Two precise citations that stay distinguishable, each carrying the report, identifier, date and edition used, plus a recorded access boundary and an honest statement about any save, retrieval or share step that was not available. A citation-only finish is useful; it does not establish stored report bytes or a completed save or share.
Worked example
Observed on 4 November 2026 on the public site, signed out. This is what one actual run of these steps produced.
Preliminary: National Transportation Safety Board, Preliminary Report RRD23MR005, Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment with subsequent hazardous material release and fires, East Palestine, Ohio, February 3, 2023; issued February 23, 2023.
Final: National Transportation Safety Board, Railroad Investigation Report RIR-24-05, Norfolk Southern Railway Derailment and Hazardous Materials Release, East Palestine, Ohio, February 3, 2023; report date June 25, 2024, reissued July 23, 2024 with corrections on pages 57–58.
What it rests on
- Both reports read on ntsb.gov: the preliminary report (4 pages, SHA-256 cca48e35…) and the corrected final report (216 pages, SHA-256 8dd310ba…).
- The reissue note is in the final report's own front matter.
What it did not establish
- Counterpedia cites only the final report and has no record of the preliminary report.
- This subject's pages offer no save, share or export. Some records, such as the TH-S01 record, do offer Save for offline.
- What the correction changed was not compared with the earlier text.
If it stops
- Private saving and recipient sharing are not established by this journey.
- Availability of retrieval depends on account and authorization.
- East Palestine is an illustrative subject; the method does not depend on it and is not limited to it.
- Citing the incident alone does not identify which document, or which edition, supports a statement.
Go deeper
Before you go deeper: The first chapter, Saving, citing, sharing, and exporting, starts from a completed Check result saved under an owning account and reopened later. This page produced no such result; its run ended with two citations. The chapter's citation section (step 4) continues this task directly. Saving and reopening the chapter’s private Check result require the authorized owner. Sharing a public source or eligible public result preserves that destination’s access conditions.