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posted 05. January 2006 22:33
Source: Nature
Published online: 14 December 2005; doi:10.1038/438900a
Internet encyclopaedias go head to head
Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a Nature investigation finds.
Jim Giles
Paragraph's 4 and 5:
The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.
Considering how Wikipedia articles are written, that result might seem surprising. A solar physicist could, for example, work on the entry on the Sun, but would have the same status as a contributor without an academic background. Disputes about content are usually resolved by discussion among users.
[ISCID's Encyclopedia of Science and Philosophy should stack up well in such a survey. ISCID Entries cannot be made by just anyone, with editors vetted by ISCID staff before approval. All entries are developed with the greatest possible care to ensure they are accurate and up to date. The ISCID owns and has been developing an entry and permissions tracking system that helps editors to ensure the integrity of their entries, and the system is currently available to approved editors as a standalone program. In the future we hope to develop a Web based management environment based on this system. As the encyclopedia moves into its third year, we need your help to strengthen this already excellent resource, which is steadily growing in prestige. We are especially in need of capable science writers. If you are a professional scientist, researcher, philosopher, science educator, science writer, technical writer, mathematical essayist or professional engineer with strong writing skills who is interested in contributing to the encyclopedia, please contact Micah Sparacio - ISCID News Editor]
Read Nature Publishing's special report.
[Emphases added by ISCID News Editor]
[Link-underlined terms with ^ indicate linked entry in ISCID Encyclopedia of Science and Philosophy as added by ISCID News Editor]
[ 05. January 2006, 22:55: Message edited by: ISCID News Editor ]
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