[WikiEN-l] Citationgate: expertise and verifiability

[Laura Scudder]

Looking at the things tagged by the reviewer
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special_relativity&diff=78107405&oldid=77881051),
almost every single one would warrant a "This is accepted by virtually
all scholars" note.  Where does it end?  Should every factual
statement have such a tag?  Surely students can figure out what a
References section is and just pick up one of those books.

I'm am very pro-citation when it helps us build a better encyclopedia,
but I'm anti-"let's footnote everything even though it appears in any
textbook on the subject and is totally uncontroversial, just to
satisfy a process decision".


On 9/29/06, Nathaniel Sheetz <preparing at psu.edu> wrote:
> On 9/29/06, Mak <makwik at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I've just attempted to explain why having inline citations can be
> > misleading. If a fact is widely agreed on, and you ascribe it to a single
> > source or author, it makes it seem as though that person is the sole
> > proponent of that idea, when in fact pretty much everyone in the field is
> > in
> > agreement.
>
>
> You don't have to list just one person in the citation.  What's wrong with
> including <ref>This is accepted by virtually all scholars, including
> Einstein in ''Book X'', Murphy in ''Article Y'', and Jones in "Article
> Z''.</ref>  Then put the bibliographic information in the references
> section, as usual.
>
> Also, in response to the original post, citations do more than just serve as
> a way to verify the facts of an article.  They also show where the material
> came from, which is helpful for anyone doing research on a topic (high
> school, college, etc.) who can't directly cite Wikipedia (not many teachers
> allow that).  Our articles need to be written so that they can be used by as
> many people as possible, and I think that one way to do that is to
> religiously cite sources.
>
> Nathaniel ([[User:Spangineer]], a real nuisance to many on FAC when it comes
> to citations)
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