Yet another “academic” article about wikipedia (Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale; Adam M. Wilson, Gene E. Likens):
Wikipedia has quickly become one of the most frequently accessed encyclopedic references, despite the ease with which content can be changed and the potential for ‘edit wars’ surrounding controversial topics. Little is known about how this potential for controversy affects the accuracy and stability of information on scientific topics, especially those with associated political controversy. Here we present an analysis of the Wikipedia edit histories for seven scientific articles and show that topics we consider politically but not scientifically “controversial” (such as evolution and global warming) experience more frequent edits with more words changed per day than pages we consider “noncontroversial” (such as the standard model in physics or heliocentrism). For example, over the period we analyzed, the global warming page was edited on average (geometric mean ±SD) 1.9±2.7 times resulting in 110.9±10.3 words changed per day, while the standard model in physics was only edited 0.2±1.4 times resulting in 9.4±5.0 words changed per day. The high rate of change observed in these pages makes it difficult for experts to monitor accuracy and contribute time-consuming corrections, to the possible detriment of scientific accuracy. As our society turns to Wikipedia as a primary source of scientific information, it is vital we read it critically and with the understanding that the content is dynamic and vulnerable to vandalism and other shenanigans.
The content of the paper is laughably thin. After a brief anecdotal introduction about blowjobs in 2011, we come to the brief substance of the paper:
We compared three topics we consider to be politically (though not scientifically) controversial (acid rain, global warming, and evolution) and four we consider to be politically uncontroversial (heliocentrism, general relativity, continental drift, and the standard model in physics)… We then calculated three metrics from each article’s history: 1) daily edit rate (excluding successive edits by the same user, n = 23,156), 2) mean edit size (the total number of words inserted, deleted, or changed) on days with at least one edit (n = 8,525), and 3) mean number of page ‘views’ per day (which includes requests by computer programs, only available after 2008-01-01)… The geometric means (±SD) ranged from 0.2±1.4 edits per day and 9.4±5.0 words changed per day for the standard model to 1.9±2.7 edits per day and 110.9±10.3 words changed per day for global warming… the three ‘controversial’ topics each had greater mean edit rates than each of the ‘noncontroversial’ topics (p<0.05)...
That’s about it, really.
A better analysis
The above is largely useless, because the original assertion was The high rate of change observed in these pages makes it difficult for experts to monitor accuracy and contribute time-consuming corrections, although that really should have been phrased as a question. So, let’s look at a few days of global warming’s history. For 2015-08-14:
* BG19bot m . . (174,469 bytes) (-2) . . (WP:CHECKWIKI error fix. Syntax fixes. Do general fixes if a problem exists. – using AWB (11377))
* Isambard Kingdom . . (174,471 bytes) (-138) . . (Undid revision 675994710 by Jamalmunshi (talk) Self-serving link removed.)
* Jamalmunshi . . (174,609 bytes) (+138) . . (→External links)
So, that’s easy to check: someone added a promo link and it got reverted; and a bot fixed something.
The previous day:
* Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk | contribs) . . (174,471 bytes) (+46) . . (→Initial causes of temperature changes (external forcings): give Milankovitch his own section (albeit short), consistent with other external forcing)
* Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk | contribs) . . (174,425 bytes) (-63) . . (→Initial causes of temperature changes (external forcings): tighten a little)
Those are both Boris, so you can trust them, and he’s even explained them. There’s nothing on the 12th, the 11th is Boris again (one of which is almost interesting, but its just pruning). Nothing on the 10th or the 9th, and on the 8th only more pruning by Boris. Nothing on the 7th, 6th or the 5th (are you starting to see a pattern here?). On the 4th there is vandalism which lasts 8 minutes.
We need to go back to the 25th of July for anything interesting; Jcardazzi (talk | contribs) . . (176,821 bytes) (+1,884) . . (→Warmest years: Jan-June 2015 records), which turns out to be the stuff Boris pruned later.
In short, an entire month’s worth of edits can be checked in less than five minutes. Indeed you can check the changes since the 6th of June (which happens to be at the bottom of the 50-changes default history page) with one diff.
The abstract ends with As our society turns to Wikipedia as a primary source of scientific information, it is vital we read it critically – I think they need to take their own words to heart.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1hF0Orc
Yet another “academic” article about wikipedia (Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale; Adam M. Wilson, Gene E. Likens):
Wikipedia has quickly become one of the most frequently accessed encyclopedic references, despite the ease with which content can be changed and the potential for ‘edit wars’ surrounding controversial topics. Little is known about how this potential for controversy affects the accuracy and stability of information on scientific topics, especially those with associated political controversy. Here we present an analysis of the Wikipedia edit histories for seven scientific articles and show that topics we consider politically but not scientifically “controversial” (such as evolution and global warming) experience more frequent edits with more words changed per day than pages we consider “noncontroversial” (such as the standard model in physics or heliocentrism). For example, over the period we analyzed, the global warming page was edited on average (geometric mean ±SD) 1.9±2.7 times resulting in 110.9±10.3 words changed per day, while the standard model in physics was only edited 0.2±1.4 times resulting in 9.4±5.0 words changed per day. The high rate of change observed in these pages makes it difficult for experts to monitor accuracy and contribute time-consuming corrections, to the possible detriment of scientific accuracy. As our society turns to Wikipedia as a primary source of scientific information, it is vital we read it critically and with the understanding that the content is dynamic and vulnerable to vandalism and other shenanigans.
The content of the paper is laughably thin. After a brief anecdotal introduction about blowjobs in 2011, we come to the brief substance of the paper:
We compared three topics we consider to be politically (though not scientifically) controversial (acid rain, global warming, and evolution) and four we consider to be politically uncontroversial (heliocentrism, general relativity, continental drift, and the standard model in physics)… We then calculated three metrics from each article’s history: 1) daily edit rate (excluding successive edits by the same user, n = 23,156), 2) mean edit size (the total number of words inserted, deleted, or changed) on days with at least one edit (n = 8,525), and 3) mean number of page ‘views’ per day (which includes requests by computer programs, only available after 2008-01-01)… The geometric means (±SD) ranged from 0.2±1.4 edits per day and 9.4±5.0 words changed per day for the standard model to 1.9±2.7 edits per day and 110.9±10.3 words changed per day for global warming… the three ‘controversial’ topics each had greater mean edit rates than each of the ‘noncontroversial’ topics (p<0.05)...
That’s about it, really.
A better analysis
The above is largely useless, because the original assertion was The high rate of change observed in these pages makes it difficult for experts to monitor accuracy and contribute time-consuming corrections, although that really should have been phrased as a question. So, let’s look at a few days of global warming’s history. For 2015-08-14:
* BG19bot m . . (174,469 bytes) (-2) . . (WP:CHECKWIKI error fix. Syntax fixes. Do general fixes if a problem exists. – using AWB (11377))
* Isambard Kingdom . . (174,471 bytes) (-138) . . (Undid revision 675994710 by Jamalmunshi (talk) Self-serving link removed.)
* Jamalmunshi . . (174,609 bytes) (+138) . . (→External links)
So, that’s easy to check: someone added a promo link and it got reverted; and a bot fixed something.
The previous day:
* Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk | contribs) . . (174,471 bytes) (+46) . . (→Initial causes of temperature changes (external forcings): give Milankovitch his own section (albeit short), consistent with other external forcing)
* Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk | contribs) . . (174,425 bytes) (-63) . . (→Initial causes of temperature changes (external forcings): tighten a little)
Those are both Boris, so you can trust them, and he’s even explained them. There’s nothing on the 12th, the 11th is Boris again (one of which is almost interesting, but its just pruning). Nothing on the 10th or the 9th, and on the 8th only more pruning by Boris. Nothing on the 7th, 6th or the 5th (are you starting to see a pattern here?). On the 4th there is vandalism which lasts 8 minutes.
We need to go back to the 25th of July for anything interesting; Jcardazzi (talk | contribs) . . (176,821 bytes) (+1,884) . . (→Warmest years: Jan-June 2015 records), which turns out to be the stuff Boris pruned later.
In short, an entire month’s worth of edits can be checked in less than five minutes. Indeed you can check the changes since the 6th of June (which happens to be at the bottom of the 50-changes default history page) with one diff.
The abstract ends with As our society turns to Wikipedia as a primary source of scientific information, it is vital we read it critically – I think they need to take their own words to heart.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1hF0Orc
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