  The analysis of redshift surveys with fractal tools requires one to apply
some form of statistical correction for galaxies lying near the geometric
boundary of the sample. In this paper we compare three different methods of
performing such a correction upon estimates of the correlation integral in
order to assess the extent to which estimates may be biased by boundary terms.
We apply the corrections illustrative examples, including a simple fractal set
(L\'{e}vy flight), a random $\beta$-model, and a subset of the CfA2 Southern
Cap survey. This study shows that the new ``angular'' correction method we
present is more generally applicable than the other methods used to date: the
conventional ``capacity'' correction imposes a bias towards homogeneity, and
the ``deflation'' method discards large-scale information, and consequently
reduces the statistical usefulness of data sets. The ``angular'' correction
method is effective at recovering true fractal dimensions, although the extent
to which boundary corrections are important depends on the form of fractal
distribution assumed as well as the details of the survey geometry. We also
show that the CfA2 Southern sample does not show any real evidence of a
transition to homogeneity. We then revisit the IRAS PSCz survey and ``mock''
PSCz catalogues made using N-body simulations of two different cosmologies. The
results we obtain from the PSCz survey are not significantly affected by the
form of boundary correction used, confirming that the transition from fractal
to homogeneous behaviour reported by Pan & Coles (2000) is real.
