Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica

Monday, April 10. 2006

Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica

Wikipedia is incredibly popular. Especially with students doing research. However, it is not as popular as an acceptable source with many teachers. I know of faculty who will not accept it as a research source. (Which won't stop students from using it.)

The general complaints against Wikipedia stem from the idea that it is wide open for contributors to post inaccurate information.

I won't argue all the points here, especially since the well-respected science journal Nature already did. They recently published an article concluding that ( for articles on science) Wikipedia is about as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

And, of course, Britannica released a rebuttal that disputes Nature's. You can download a pdf of it.

Check the links and decide for yourself. Just don't pretend it will go away.

Posted by Ken Ronkowitz in Issues at 21:08 | Comment (1) | Trackback (1)

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this is very good
this is a very good article

Weblog: MSN
Tracked: Apr 17, 20:07

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Be sure to look at Wikipedia's own article on Britannica's Rebuttal I added the link - in case that doesn't work, here is the url

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-03-27/Britannica

#1 CM (Homepage) on 2006-06-09 11:55 (Reply)

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