Friday, March 24, 2006

Encyclopedia Britannica or Wikipedia? Study in Nature is said to be inaccurate.

From BBC News:
Wikipedia study 'fatally flawed'

"A study on the accuracy of the free online resource, Wikipedia, by the prestigious journal Nature has been described as 'fatally flawed'.

"The report, published in December last year, compared the accuracy of online offerings from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Nature found that both were about as accurate as each other on science. <Read the Nature report>

Encyclopaedia Britannica has hit back at the findings, calling for the paper to be retracted." <Read the full BBC news story>

The report in Nature has sparked at least two letters in response, suggesting ways to utilize wiki software to benefit science and facilitate scientific research:
Gene-function wiki would let biologists pool worlwide resources.
(2 Feb.);
Wiki ware could harness the internet for science. (16 March)

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