Becoming a Wikipedian allowed me to understand the true extent of why vetting and citing information matters. As university students, we often view citing sources only in terms of writing essays and lab reports, however, this should not be the case. Citations hold incredible power even in a non-academic setting.
Before becoming a Wikipedian I had no knowledge of open access information or metadata. While learning more about the organization of the site and the role of Wikipedia editors, I began to understand the immense complexity behind delivering public, open access, reliable information.
The nature and accessibility of Wikipedia has long been contested by educators. Some view the website as unreliable and insubstantial. On the contrary, information obtained from Wikipedia can be highly reliable (if sourced correctly) and highly vetted (by experts in the field). In a non-research setting, the platform – Wikipedia, allows us to understand the importance of checking where information is coming from and why it is necessary to vet information. Fact-checking is not only valuable in scientific research papers or experiments but also in a day-to-day context.
Verifying sources is important to uphold ethics and maintain the integrity of knowledge being disseminated. In the global information age, it is vital to distinguish between legitimate and non-legitimate sources of information.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 