Wikipedia has one of the best Google page ranks of any site in the world and a place in Alexa's top 10. No matter what you search for, the Wikipedia entry is probably in the top three results for that topic. That has made it easy to find and use when seeking any kind of information. But, should it be used as a reliable source of that information?
The Encyclopedia Britannica Vs. Wikipedia
The Encyclopedia Britannica is one of the few sources that most people agree on for reliable, accurate information. It is often held as the standard for finding accurate information. The journal Nature ran a large-scale test of the information in Wikipedia entries versus the same entries in Encyclopedia Britannica. The results were startlingly similar.
Both publications had a number of errors, and both had roughly the same number of errors. According to Nature, Wikipedia had an average of 2.86 errors per article while Encyclopedia Britannica had an average of 2.92 mistakes per article.
Wikipedia Page Editors
Since the study was conducted in 2005, Wikipedia began employing page editors for particular categories to give them a higher accuracy rate and to keep the public edits to the pages under review. This included page editors who were assigned to celebrity entries in 2009 to ensure a better accuracy rate. Edits to these pages are now overseen by editors who work to keep libelous and untrue statements from being added to entries that concern living people.
Other pages on the site are moderated by editors who ensure that the facts contained on the pages are backed up by linked resources that can be verified. Entries that don't have accurate resources are often flagged as having uncited facts.
Wikipedia Accuracy
Though the statistical accuracy of Wikipedia is close to that of the most trusted print encyclopedia, Wikipedia is still not trusted as a source of information for most scholarly applications. And though it isn't as accurate as a traditional student encyclopedia, it does have other uses as a research tool. Because the site requires that all facts be cited with offsite links to credible sources, the bottom of any Wikipedia page is full of useful links that can be used for further study of any subject matter.
While Wikipedia is looked down upon by many, there is a concerted effort to keep the information as accurate as possible. For a free online encyclopedia, it does offer some value for finding quick facts and for finding a quick list of resources on a given topic. And with an accuracy rate close to that of Encyclopedia Britannica, the online encyclopedia will continue to be used by those who want fast, free access to information.
Lizz Shepherd - I am a freelance writer specializing, for now, in Web writing. The Web is an enormous place and I have been carving out my own little ...
