I'm using the APS Wikipedia project this semester. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/members/aps-wikipedia-initiative Students have just selected the article they will work on so they have not done serious editing yet. I do not personally have any experience with Wikipedia. So far it is really fun to see how much greater the stakes are for the students that everything is publicly discussed, debated, edited and examined. The project already matters in a whole different way that a typical research paper. I also reminded them today that I can see everything they do (how many words they are writing, what they have added or deleted, how long they have spent on the portal, when they are working, etc.)
An encyclopedia is fundamentally different from other sources to which scholars contribute. The author of the Chronicle piece wanted to correct information based on his unique knowledge (and later book) that contradicted a great deal of existing knowledge. It makes sense to me that an encyclopedia would be reluctant to change the entry based on just one source (when all the other available source say something else). As other noted you also duke this out on the talk pages before editing actual information. As to sources I also noted (with some surprise) the preference Wikipedia seems to place on secondary over primary secondary sources. Since there are so few books published in psychology (at least on the topics my students have chosen) I think I'll explain it to my students that (for us) it means that a review article or a meta-analysis is better than a single empirical article. We'll see if the Wiki police agree. Marie Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor l Department of Psychology Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971 Office Hours: Mondays and Tuesdays 2:00-3:30 http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html -----Original Message----- From: Rick Froman [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 12:07 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] A cautionary tale on Wikipedia I agree that the privileging of secondary sources over primary sources by Wikipedia is, in many cases, just ridiculous. Look at how the myths about psychology have been passed down in intro psych texts because everyone quoted each other instead of going back to the primary source. So, according to Wikipedia, the incorrect secondary source is all you need to know. Note how this policy also privileges pop psych which is normally published in the format of widely available books over scientific psychology which is largely published in peer-reviewed journals. This really gives me pause about having my students participate in the APS Wikipedia project. Maybe sciences like Psychology need to start their own publicly available wikis that will privilege primary sources above secondary ones. You shouldn't have to be an expert or a scientist to participate, just someone who is interested in bringing the best available evidence to bear on the question. And certainly such a science wiki is much more likely to tolerate theoretical differences and realize that some of these questions will be very sticky and are not yet at a place where there is a clean resolution. Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3055 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] (479)524-7295 http://bit.ly/DrFroman -----Original Message----- Marc Carter wrote: But I teach my students don't believe what you read: look at the references and go to the original literature. But this scares me: if the students can't get links to some original literature, then what I've been teaching them is worthless.... Reckon I'll spend a little more time on the difference between primary and secondary sources. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a4468797f&n=T&l=tips&o=16068 or send a blank email to leave-16068-13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a44687...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=16077 or send a blank email to leave-16077-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
