It’s a meme that Wikipedia is not a trustworthy source. Wikipedia agrees:
We advise special caution when using Wikipedia as a source for research projects. Normal academic usage of Wikipedia and other encyclopedias is for getting the general facts of a problem and to gather keywords, references and bibliographical pointers, but not as a source in itself. Remember that Wikipedia is a wiki. Anyone in the world can edit an article, deleting accurate information or adding false information, which the reader may not recognize. Thus, you probably shouldn’t be citing Wikipedia. This is good advice for all tertiary sources such as encyclopedias, which are designed to introduce readers to a topic, not to be the final point of reference. Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias, provides overviews of a topic and indicates sources of more extensive information. See researching with Wikipedia and academic use of Wikipedia for more information.
This seems completely bonkers to me. Yes, Wikipedia is not 100% accurate, but this is a trivial statement. What is the alternative? Academic papers? My experience suggests that I’m more than 10 times as likely to find errors in academic papers than in Wikipedia. Journal articles? Pretty sure the factor here is even higher. And on top of that, Wikipedia tends to be way better explained.
I can mostly judge mathy articles, and honestly, it’s almost unbelievable to me how good Wikipedia actually seems to be. A data point here is the Monty Hall problem. I think the thing that’s most commonly misunderstood about this problem is that the solution depends on how the host chooses the door they reveal. Wikipedia:
The given probabilities depend on specific assumptions about how the host and contestant choose their doors. A key insight is that, under these standard conditions, there is more information about doors 2 and 3 than was available at the beginning of the game when door 1 was chosen by the player: the host’s deliberate action adds value to the door he did not choose to eliminate, but not to the one chosen by the contestant originally. Another insight is that switching doors is a different action than choosing between the two remaining doors at random, as the first action uses the previous information and the latter does not. Other possible behaviors than the one described can reveal different additional information, or none at all, and yield different probabilities. Yet another insight is that your chance of winning by switching doors is directly related to your chance of choosing the winning door in the first place: if you choose the correct door on your first try, then switching loses; if you choose a wrong door on your first try, then switching wins; your chance of choosing the correct door on your first try is 1⁄3, and the chance of choosing a wrong door is 2⁄3.
It’s possible that Wikipedia’s status as not being a cite-able source is part of the reason why it’s so good. I’m not sure. But the fact that a system based entirely on voluntary contributions so thoroughly outperforms academic journals is remarkable.
Another more rambly aspect here is that, when I hear someone lament the quality of Wikipedia, almost always my impression is that this person is doing superiority signaling rather than having a legitimate reason for the comment.
I believe I saw a study that showed the amount of inaccuracies in Wikipedia to be about equal to those in a well trusted encyclopedia (Britannica I think?) as judged by experts on the articles being reviewed.
Interesting, but worth pointing out that this is 15 years old. One thing that I believe changed within that time is that anyone can edit articles (now, edits aren’t published until they’re approved). And in general, I believe Wikipedia has gotten better over time, though I’m not sure.
The ideal situation to which Wikipedia contributors\editors are striving for kinda makes desires to cite Wikipedia itself pointless. Well written Wikipedia article should not contain any information that has no original source attached. So it should always be available to switch from wiki article to original material doing citing. And it is that way as far as my experience goes.
Regarding alternatives. Academic papers serve different purpose and must not be used as navigation material. The only real alternative i know is the field handbooks.
The ideal situation to which Wikipedia contributors\editors are striving for kinda makes desires to cite Wikipedia itself pointless. Well written Wikipedia article should not contain any information that has no original source attached. So it should always be available to switch from wiki article to original material doing citing.
I see what you’re saying, but citing Wikipedia has the benefit that a person looking at the source gets to read Wikipedia (which is generally easier to read) rather than the academic paper. Plus, it’s less work for the person doing the citation.
It’s less work for the citer, but that extra work helps guide against misinformation. In principle, you are only supposed to cite what you’ve actually read, so if someone has misdescribed the content of the citation, making the next citer check what the original text says helps catch the mistake.
And while citing the original is extra work for the citer, it’s less work for anyone who wants to track down and read the original citation.
It’s a meme that Wikipedia is not a trustworthy source. Wikipedia agrees:
This seems completely bonkers to me. Yes, Wikipedia is not 100% accurate, but this is a trivial statement. What is the alternative? Academic papers? My experience suggests that I’m more than 10 times as likely to find errors in academic papers than in Wikipedia. Journal articles? Pretty sure the factor here is even higher. And on top of that, Wikipedia tends to be way better explained.
I can mostly judge mathy articles, and honestly, it’s almost unbelievable to me how good Wikipedia actually seems to be. A data point here is the Monty Hall problem. I think the thing that’s most commonly misunderstood about this problem is that the solution depends on how the host chooses the door they reveal. Wikipedia:
It’s possible that Wikipedia’s status as not being a cite-able source is part of the reason why it’s so good. I’m not sure. But the fact that a system based entirely on voluntary contributions so thoroughly outperforms academic journals is remarkable.
Another more rambly aspect here is that, when I hear someone lament the quality of Wikipedia, almost always my impression is that this person is doing superiority signaling rather than having a legitimate reason for the comment.
I believe I saw a study that showed the amount of inaccuracies in Wikipedia to be about equal to those in a well trusted encyclopedia (Britannica I think?) as judged by experts on the articles being reviewed.
Here’s is wikipedia’s (I’m sure very accurate) coverage of the study.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia#Assessments
Interesting, but worth pointing out that this is 15 years old. One thing that I believe changed within that time is that anyone can edit articles (now, edits aren’t published until they’re approved). And in general, I believe Wikipedia has gotten better over time, though I’m not sure.
That’s true in the German Wikipedia. It’s not true for most Wikipedia versions.
Ah, I didn’t know that. (Even though I use the English Wikipedia more than the German one.)
Here’s is wikipedia’s (I’m sure very accurate) coverage of the study.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia#Assessments
The ideal situation to which Wikipedia contributors\editors are striving for kinda makes desires to cite Wikipedia itself pointless. Well written Wikipedia article should not contain any information that has no original source attached. So it should always be available to switch from wiki article to original material doing citing. And it is that way as far as my experience goes.
Regarding alternatives. Academic papers serve different purpose and must not be used as navigation material. The only real alternative i know is the field handbooks.
I see what you’re saying, but citing Wikipedia has the benefit that a person looking at the source gets to read Wikipedia (which is generally easier to read) rather than the academic paper. Plus, it’s less work for the person doing the citation.
It’s less work for the citer, but that extra work helps guide against misinformation. In principle, you are only supposed to cite what you’ve actually read, so if someone has misdescribed the content of the citation, making the next citer check what the original text says helps catch the mistake.
And while citing the original is extra work for the citer, it’s less work for anyone who wants to track down and read the original citation.