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Wikipedia is the world's most successful online encyclopedia, now containing over 6.9 million English language articles. It is probably the largest collection of knowledge ever assembled, and is certainly the most widely accessible. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone with Internet access who chooses to, but does it provide reliable information? A 2005 study by Nature found that a selection of Wikipedia articles on scientific subjects were comparable to a professionally edited encyclopedia,[1] suggesting a community of volunteers can generate and sustain surprisingly accurate content.
For better or worse, people are guided to Wikipedia when searching the Web for biomedical information.[2] So, there is an increasing need for the scientific community to engage with Wikipedia to ensure that the information it contains is accurate and current. For scientists, contributing to Wikipedia is an excellent way of fulfilling public engagement responsibilities and sharing expertise. For example, some Wikipedian scientists have successfully integrated biological data with Wikipedia to promote community annotation.[3][4] This, in turn, encourages wider access to the linked data via Wikipedia. Others have used the wiki model to develop their own specialist, collaborative databases.[5][6][7][8] Taking your first steps into Wikipedia can be daunting, but here we provide some tips that should make the editing process go smoothly.
- ^ Giles, J. (15 December 2005). "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head". Nature. 438 (7070): 900–901. Bibcode:2005Natur.438..900G. doi:10.1038/438900a. PMID 16355180. S2CID 4417563.
- ^ Laurent, Michaël R.; Vickers, Tim J. (2009-07-01). "Seeking Health Information Online: Does Wikipedia Matter?". Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 16 (4): 471–479. doi:10.1197/jamia.M3059. PMC 2705249. PMID 19390105.
- ^ Daub, Jennifer; et al. (2008). "The RNA WikiProject: Community annotation of RNA families". RNA. 14 (12): 2462–2464. doi:10.1261/rna.1200508. PMC 2590952. PMID 18945806.
- ^ Huss, Jon W.; et al. (2008). "A Gene Wiki for Community Annotation of Gene Function". PLOS Biology. 6 (7): e175. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060175. PMC 2443188. PMID 18613750.
- ^ Hoffmann, Robert (2008). "A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters". Nature Genetics. 40 (9): 1047–1051. doi:10.1038/ng.f.217. PMID 18728691. S2CID 13120719.
- ^ Mons, Barend; et al. (2008). "Calling on a million minds for community annotation in WikiProteins". Genome Biology. 9 (5): R89. doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-5-r89. PMC 2441475. PMID 18507872.
- ^ Pico, Alexander R.; et al. (2008). "WikiPathways: Pathway Editing for the People". PLOS Biology. 6 (7): e184. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060184. PMC 2475545. PMID 18651794.
- ^ Hodis, Eran; et al. (2008). "Proteopedia - a scientific 'wiki' bridging the rift between 3D structure and function of biomacromolecules". Genome Biology. 9 (8): R121. doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-8-r121. PMC 2575511. PMID 18673581.