Michael Snow wrote
Academics will go to considerable lengths to refute what they consider misinformation when it is propagated in the forums they respect - just grab a few academic journals and scan through the letters to the editor.
True in some cases - an article in "Nature" for example. I should probably have qualified my point. We know that academics, those with higher degree and graduate students are amongst the most valuable contributors (alongside others who are not in any way academics). It is helpful to isolate what you could call 'pro bono' work to discuss. That is, one can consider that idealised situation of an academic authority in a field sitting down to write an article for WP, or edit into shape a page, with the same seriousness, fact- and reference-checking, and commitment as she or he would apply to a survey written for a learned journal. Well, that is what is unlikely to happen on a wiki, however prominent.
Charles