Dataset Information

Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale.

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Wilson AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4537301 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale.

Wilson Adam M AM Likens Gene E GE

PloS one 20150814 8

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 to ...[more]

PMID: 26275058

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Project description:FURIN is a pro-protein convertase previously shown to be important for placental syncytialisation (Zhou et al. [1]), a process of cell fusion whereby placental cytotrophoblast cells fuse to form a multinucleated syncytium. This finding has been broadly accepted however, we have evidence suggesting the contrary. Spontaneously syncytialising term primary human trophoblast cells and BeWo choriocarcinoma cells were treated with either FURIN siRNA or negative control siRNA or the protease inhibitor, DEC-RVKR-CMK, or vehicle. Cells were then left to either spontaneously syncytialise (primary trophoblasts) or were induced to syncytialise with forskolin (BeWo). Effects on syncytialisation were measured by determining human chorionic gonadotrophin secretion and E-cadherin protein levels. We showed that FURIN is not important for syncytialisation in either cell type. However, in primary trophoblasts another protease also inhibited by DEC-RVKR-CMK, may be involved. Our results directly contrast with those published by Zhou et al. Zhou et al. however, used first trimester villous explants to study syncytialisation, and we used term primary trophoblasts. Therefore, we suggest that FURIN may be involved in syncytialisation of first trimester trophoblasts, but not term trophoblasts. What is more concerning is that our results using BeWo cells do not agree with their results, even though for the most part, we used the same experimental design. It is unclear why these experiments yielded different results, however we wanted to draw attention to simple differences in measuring syncytialisation or flaws in method reporting (including omission of cell line source and passage numbers, siRNA concentration and protein molecular weights) and choice of immunoblot loading controls, that could impact on experimental outcomes. Our study shows that careful reporting of methods by authors and thorough scrutiny by referees are vital. Furthermore, a universal benchmark for measuring syncytialisation is required so that various studies of syncytialisation can be validated.

Dataset Information

Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale.

Publications

Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale.

Similar Datasets

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