The Editorial ‘Keep science on track’ (Nature 542, 137; 2017) wrongly attributed to Till Sawala and then to Nadine El-Enany the opinion that the proposed boycott of US-based conferences is intended to demonstrate against a ban that hurts everyone. The article also misquoted Nadine El-Enany (originally incorrectly attributed to Sawala) as saying a petition she co-organized aimed to stop more countries being added to the blacklist. In fact, El-Enany had referred to concerns about people who are not from the seven Muslim-majority countries stipulated in the travel ban, but who are nevertheless facing detention and harassment at the border. Sawala had referred to the unsustainable cost of the ban on science and on the life of scientists.