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We've probably all said that Wikipedia should never be used as a primary source in any study. A recent publication [jaoa.org] gives that philosophy teeth, finding that in 9 of the Wikipedia articles about the 10 most costly diseases, there are significant errors that are contradictory to actual published literature.
Since its 2001 launch, Wikipedia has become the most popular general reference site on the Internet, ranking 6th globally based on Internet traffic.
Wikipedia's prominence has been made possible by its fundamental design as a wiki, or collaborative database, allowing all users the ability to add, delete, and edit information at will. However, it is this very feature that has raised concern in the medical community regarding the reliability of the information it contains.
Despite these concerns, Wikipedia has become a popular source of health care information, with 47% to 70% of physicians and medical students admitting to using it as a reference. In actuality, these figures may be higher because some researchers suspect its use is underreported. Although the effect of Wikipedia's information on medical decision making is unclear, it almost certainly has an influence.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gman003 on Wednesday May 28 2014, @03:50AM
In other news, serious flaws have also been found in newspapers, magazines, novels, encyclopedias, scholarly reports, federally-funded studies, stand-up routines, blogs, twitter feeds, webcomics, cookbooks, textbooks, sourcebooks, source code, machine code, holy texts and personal opinions.
No flaw was found in the scientific method; however, experts warn that there may have been a flaw in their flaw-detection method. Citizens are advised to take everything with a grain of salt, unless at risk for cardiovascular disease in which case a salt substitute is recommended.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 28 2014, @04:25AM
Clap, clap. Flawless!
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 28 2014, @04:38AM
serious flaws have also been found in newspapers
We're not talking little Page 23 items here.
Dewey Defeats Truman [washtimes.com]
-- gewg_