Hello,
A German PhD about dentristy articles in Wikipedia has been presented,
I now accidentally fell over it.
Kind regards
Ziko van Dijk
URL:
http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/6884/
Lorenz, Annette
Beurteilung der Qualität zahnmedizinischer Einträge in Wikipedia - ein
Vergleich mit zahnmedizinischer Fachliteratur
Dentistry in Wikipedia - a quantitative and qualitative analysis
Kurzfassung in Englisch
The aim of this dissertation was to examine all 285 dental entries in
the German- language online encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA from November 2006
until January 2008 for their scientific quality.
For this purpose, the WIKIPEDIA entries were examined for their
correctness by relying on sources from the dental literature that were
found through electronic and manual searches. Every entry was
classified under one of the following headings: “textbook- suitable”,
“partially textbook-suitable” or “textbook-unsuitable”. The assessment
criteria included correctness of contents and furthermore spelling and
completeness alongside mistakes in style and language. In addition the
monthly increase in dental WIKIPEDIA articles published in 10 European
languages (i.e. “WIKIPEDIA versions”) was taken into account.
After the exclusion of 18 articles that appeared twice and one that
appeared three times, 256 keywords remained for assessment. From
these, four could not be included in the assessment as they contained
statements about individuals that could not be verified. From the 261
usable dental WIKIPEDIA entries, 28% were qualitatively comparable to
a textbook. Fifty-six percent of the contributions conveyed correct
knowledge; the quality of the presentation, however, was not
equivalent to that of a textbook. About 16% of the articles contained
mistakes regarding contents, and thus were not suitable for the
propagation of state-of-the-art dental knowledge. On average, 56 new
dental articles appeared every month, of which 3 were in German. With
51%, the English language formed the biggest portion of the total
number of dentistry-related entries.
As it is not possible for the WIKIPEDIA user to judge the quality of
the information presented, it is essential that she/he does not rely
blindly on the correctness of this online encyclopedia. An additional
information search is, therefore, indispensible. In general, however,
WIKIPEDIA would appear suitable to provide a quick, albeit somewhat
rough overview of dental topics. Thus far, no efforts have been made
to ensure a suitable quality of WIKIPEDIA entries. Conceivable would
be a form of “specialist jury”, comprised of dental specialists and
dental technicians. Such a body could examine, and if necessary,
correct contributions, before they are submitted to be included in
WIKIPEDIA. In addition, high-quality articles could be referenced, so
that the user receives a form of quality guide.
--
Ziko van Dijk
NL-Silvolde