Wikipedia:External peer review/Denver Post

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The Denver Post (May 2007)[edit]

Discussion page

"The Denver Post asked five Colorado scholars to review the Wikipedia entries on Islam, Bill Clinton, global warming, China and evolution."

Findings[edit]

Global warming

Colorado State University's Scott Denning, the Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science.

  • "a great primer on the subject"
  • "Following the links takes the interested reader into greater and greater depth, probably further than any traditional encyclopedia I've seen"
  • pleasantly surprised how the main articles "stick to the science and avoid confusing the reader with political controversy."
  • wishes Wikipedia offered better links to basic weather science.
China

University of Colorado history professor William Wei

  • "simplistic, and in some places, even incoherent."
  • "mishandled the issue of Korean independence from China"
  • "and the context of the Silk Road in China's international relations."
Bill Clinton

Bob Loevy, political science professor at Colorado College and frequent writer on Bill Clinton

  • thorough and unbiased, giving fair weight to both Clinton accomplishments and scandals.
  • The bulk of it appeared to have been written by the Clinton Museum and Library in Little Rock, Ark.
  • "a great place for a student to begin building his or her knowledge" on Clinton
Islam

Retired CU religious studies professor Frederick Denny, 40-year specialist in Islam

  • "quite impressed"
  • "It looks like something that might have been done by a young graduate student, or assistant professor, or two or three"
  • clinical and straightforward, but not boring.
  • where important translations of Arabic language or fine religious distinctions are required, Wikipedia acquits itself well.
Evolution

CU biology professor Jeffrey Mitton

  • "good," even if "stylistic infelicities abound."
  • If a student read through the main entry and the primary links to supporting concepts, he would get a fine introduction
  • first reference cited for the authoritative textbook on evolution by Douglas Futuyma, "so that is excellent, as it should be,"
  • rest of the source list appropriate, and well-rounded

Response[edit]

Looks like we got lucky, since 3/5 of the articles picked are Wikipedia:Featured articles, we could hope they'd be good. China needs work, not sure what "stylistic infelicities" in Evolution are specifically, otherwise it looks like we just need to bask. :-) --AnonEMouse (squeak) 01:41, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

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