[WikiEN-l] Re: About the reliability of the Wikipedia process andcontent

[Charles Matthews]

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