In the full (online) version of this News article by Owen Dyer (BMJ 2007, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39272.468044.4E) we incorrectly said that researchers from Cambridge University's autism research centre would conclude in an as yet unpublished study that autistic spectrum disorders were more common among British schoolchildren than previously thought, with 1 in 58 children having such a disorder.
The lead researcher, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, said in a letter to the Observer (15 July, 2007, p 28) that the research had not yet come out with a definitive figure but the best estimate of the prevalence of autism was the 1% figure published in the Lancet in 2006.