The Independent questions Wikipedia's accuracy

February 13, 2006

United Kingdom newspaper The Independent has run a story scrutinizing the accuracy of Wikipedia articles, using eight experts in various fields to comment on particular articles' validity. The experts' opinions ranged on topics from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to Kate Moss, Tony Blair and invitro fertilization.

Robert McHenry, a former editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica posits his belief that contrary to the underlying notion that Wikipedia articles are constantly improving, the "mass [of articles] tend to the mediocre."

According to historian Antony Beevor, "With Wikipedia's entries, there is a lack of satisfaction, not so much through inaccuracy but there are a lot of vague statements which you cannot really disprove but which you don't think are necessarily helpful."

While noting that Wikipedia's most controversial topics are rife for distortion, The Independent article goes on to point out that a number of studies have shown articles to be accurate. In comparing the online site to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Nature found that on average, Wikipedia had only one more error per entry than the traditional "gold standard" for encyclopaedias. Likewise, the German computer magazine, c't, gave Wikipedia a 3.6 rating out of 5 for accuracy, which surpassed two other rivals, such as Microsoft Encarta which received a 3.1.