Thursday, December 15, 2005

Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica

Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica
The online encylopaedia Wikipedia, home to nearly 4 million articles contributed by volunteers, covers scientific topics about as accurately as Encylopaedia Britannica according to experts.

In a comparison of 42 articles from the two sources, covering a broad swath of the scientific spectrum, the respected journal Nature found little disparity in accuracy.

The findings were published in an online article on Wednesday which, according to its author, was the first time peer review had been used to compare the two encylopaedias.

Jimmy Wales, who founded Florida-based Wikipedia in 2001, said: "We're very pleased with the results and we're hoping it will focus people's attention on the overall level of our work, which is pretty good."

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