[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia: the Journal

[Brian]

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 4:07 PM, <WJhonson at aol.com> wrote:

> In a message dated 9/13/2009 2:48:48 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> Brian.Mingus at colorado.edu writes:
>
>
> > Clearly, this information will not be ported back to Wikipedia. >>
>
> Why is this clear?  It isn't clear to me.
>
> Will
>

Scholarpedia was designed to give academics credit for their work and it
makes reasonable guarantees about the accuracy of its content. The accuracy
guarantee is a benefit not only to readers, but to the authors as well. You
sometimes see Scholarpedia articles in academic CVs. After the curatorship
is turned over to the community only those who have demonstrated their
expertise on the topic by making high quality contributions are allowed to
edit. As experts pass away there is competition among leaders in the field
to take over curatorship of the topic. From the perspective of a scientist
who cares about whether their work is being represented correctly this is
vastly preferable to having your writing mercilessly edited by people who
may or may not have any clue what they are talking about, or who may have
hidden agendas. Additionally, you are in good company at Scholarpedia.
Academics want to publish their work in the same place as their
contemporaries. After the community votes on which living expert should be
an author, they work hard to invite that author to write the article and to
help them out in any way they can. It was designed by academics, for
academics. It will be tough to beat.