Shapps denies Wikipedia claims. Image source, Getty Images. The English-language version of Wikipedia has about 25 million users. What is Wikipedia again? Who writes the entries? Who checks for quality and accuracy? How easy is it to make up stuff about people? Don't people and companies use Wikipedia for self-promotion? How do I become an editor? What happens if you get caught misbehaving? But can't you just set up a new account? So how does Wikipedia stop repeat "sock puppet" offenders?
Published 22 April When writing, do state facts and facts about notable opinions, but do not offer your opinion as fact.
Many newcomers to Wikipedia gravitate to articles on controversial issues about which people hold strong opposing viewpoints. Avoid these until familiar with Wikipedia's policies see Rule 3 , and instead focus on articles that are much easier to remain dispassionate about. Many scientists who contribute to Wikipedia fail to appreciate that a neutral point of view is not the same as the mainstream scientific point of view. When writing about complex issues, try to cover all significant viewpoints and afford each with due weight, but not equal weight.
For example, an article on a scientific controversy should describe both the scientific consensus and significant fringe theories, but not in the same depth or in a manner suggesting these viewpoints are equally held.
Wikipedia can be a confusing place for the inexperienced editor. Learning Wiki markup—the syntax that instructs the software how to render the page—may appear daunting at first, though the recent implementation of a new editing toolbar has made this easier, and usability development is ongoing. The intersecting guidelines and policies and the annoying tendency of experienced editors to use an alphabet soup of acronyms to reference them can also be tricky to comprehend.
Thankfully, the Wikipedia community puts great stock in welcoming new editors. Guidance is available through a number of avenues, including help desks, a specific IRC channel, and an Adopt-a-User mentorship program.
We thank Philip Bourne for insightful comments and gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the many Wikipedians who collectively developed the policies and guidelines that inspired these rules. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this article. Rule 1: Register an Account Although any visitor can edit Wikipedia, creating a user account offers a number of benefits.
Rule 4: Know Your Audience Wikipedia is not primarily aimed at experts; therefore, the level of technical detail in its articles must be balanced against the ability of non-experts to understand those details. Rule 5: Do Not Infringe Copyright With certain conditions, almost all of Wikipedia's content is free for anyone to reuse, adapt, and distribute.
Rule 6: Cite, Cite, Cite To maintain the highest standards possible, Wikipedia has a strict inclusion policy that demands verifiability [11]. Rule 8: Share Your Expertise, but Don't Argue from Authority Writing about a subject about which you have academic expertise is not a conflict of interest [12] ; indeed, this is where we can contribute to Wikipedia most effectively.
Rule Ask for Help Wikipedia can be a confusing place for the inexperienced editor. Acknowledgments We thank Philip Bourne for insightful comments and gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the many Wikipedians who collectively developed the policies and guidelines that inspired these rules.
References 1. Giles J Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature — View Article Google Scholar 2. J Am Med Inform Assoc — View Article Google Scholar 3. RNA — View Article Google Scholar 4. PLoS Biol 6: e View Article Google Scholar 5. Hoffmann R A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nat Genet — View Article Google Scholar 6.
Genome Biol 9: R View Article Google Scholar 7. View Article Google Scholar 8. View Article Google Scholar 9. Wikipedia contributors No original research. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 26 July Wikipedia contributors Civility. If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below.
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Featured content. Free courses. All content. You can revise, but you can't hide: Why Wikipedia edits leave a trail Updated Wednesday, 7th May Cybercitizens can be good or bad So many of us use Wikipedia on a daily basis that it is one of the most visited websites in the world. The perils of editing If you pick any Wikipedia page, you can see a view history tab on the far right. Using the database, the newspaper was able to investigate the source of the changes. The net closes in While the newspaper can only go so far as to identify the IP addresses used to make the offensive comments on the Hillsborough page, the networking experts who run government systems can go further.
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