Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University checked the accuracy of information on the popular open-source encyclopedia Wikipedia with that on the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query. PDQ is a professional database that is peer-reviewed and edited. Both sources were fact-checked against textbooks. The final conclusion: Wikipedia is accurate but poorly written.
Results shows that Wikipedia is not worse than the professional website. Only 2% of the information on either was different than in textbooks. However, it is interesting that researchers found that Wikipedia’s information was written at a higher level of complexity than the professional PDQ.
The study says that Wikipedia is as accurate source of information as a professionally reviewed resource.
