January 13, 2006

Journal Gives Wikipedia High Marks for Accuracy, but Not for Readability

By DAN CARNEVALE

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that lets any Internet user draft and edit entries, has taken some heat recently for publishing inaccurate information.

But the science journal Nature conducted an investigation and found that Wikipedia is almost as accurate as Encyclopaedia Britannica, at least when it comes to science articles.

The magazine asked subject-matter experts to review 42 pairs of entries from both encyclopedias, without letting the experts know which was which.

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