Much of the criticism of Wikipedia has assumed that commercially produced encyclopedias are without error. The recent “peer-reviewed” study by Nature suggests there isn’t much difference…
news @ nature.com – Internet encyclopaedias go head to head – Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a Nature investigation finds.
However, an expert-led investigation carried out by Nature — the first to use peer review to compare Wikipedia and Britannica’s coverage of science — suggests that such high-profile examples are the exception rather than the rule.The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.