Wikipedia Accuracy

Recently Nature has investigated Wikipedia. The Nature study, results of which were published in the December 15 issue, asked scientists to assess 50 entries on scientific topics ranging from Dolly the sheep to Dmitry Mendeleev, the 19th-century Russian chemist, without telling them if the articles came from the Britannica or Wikipedia. The study found the average Britannica entry contained approximately three inaccuracies, while Wikipedia had four. Only eight "serious errors" were found, four in each encyclopedia. Britannica objected that, despite Nature's conclusion, the journal's own figures showed Wikipedia had one-third more inaccuracies.

It was also uncovered that some US politicians were trying to clean up their image. Staff of Democrat senator Tom Harkin apparently removed a paragraph from his Wikipedia entry recording his false claim to have flown combat missions over North Vietnam. Similarly, staff of Republican senator Norm Coleman rewrote his Wikipedia biography so that he was described merely as an "activist" at university, not a "liberal".