Is it possible to have Wikipedia sources in a cycle? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by inspxtr@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I’m not very familiar with how Wikipedia vets the sources in the references/external links. I was wondering whether there are manual or automated checks for cyclic sources, for example a Wikipedia page cites a source for something, but such source after a few rounds of citing would go back to the same Wikipedia page.

Does that happen with Wikipedia?
Does it matter? I presume that would invalidate the source?
How do they make sure it does not happen? Is there an automated check or something?

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[-] liori@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

From my experience, despite all the citogenesis described in other comments here, Wikipedia citations are still better vetted than in many, many scientific papers, let alone regular journalism :/ I recall spending days following citation links in already well-cited papers to basically debunk basic statements in the field.

[-] inspxtr@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Can you give an example if you remember for the last point you made?

[-] liori@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I do not have notes from that time anymore, sorry. I do recall though that after following a chain of citations I ended up at the paper in the center of this controversy. Nobody sane would cite in now except to point out its flaws, but if there's a modern paper that cites a 10 year old paper that cites a 30 year old paper that cites it—people usually won't notice.

this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023

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