This morning CNN.com reported that the journal Nature recently performed a study that was published in an online article yesterday. This study concluded that, in covering scientific topics, Wikipedia is about as accurate as the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

They did side-by-side comparisons of articles on a wide variety of science-related topics and concluded that factual errors, like the Kennedy-related one that’s been big news lately, are the exception rather than the norm.

Based on 42 articles reviewed by experts, the average scientific entry in Wikipedia contained four errors or omissions, while Britannica had three.

Of eight “serious errors” the reviewers found — including misinterpretations of important concepts — four came from each source, the journal reported.

[Jimmy] Wales [founder of Wikipedia]said the accuracy of his project varies by topic, with strong suits including pop culture and contemporary technology. That’s because Wikipedia’s stable of dedicated volunteers tend to have more collective expertise in such areas, he said.

The site tends to lag when it comes to topics touching on the humanities, such as the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature for a particular year, Wales said.

Next month, Wikipedia plans to begin testing a new mechanism for reviewing the accuracy of its articles. The group also is working on ways to make its review process easier to use by people who have less familiarity with computers and the Internet.

From the original article itself:

Michael Twidale, an information scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says that Wikipedia’s strongest suit is the speed at which it can updated, a factor not considered by Nature’s reviewers.

“People will find it shocking to see how many errors there are in Britannica,” Twidale adds. “Print encyclopaedias are often set up as the gold standards of information quality against which the failings of faster or cheaper resources can be compared. These findings remind us that we have an 18-carat standard, not a 24-carat one.”