By Elisabeth McKechnie and Susan Llano
Elisabeth McKechnie is a Reference Librarian at the UC Davis Law Library.
She can be reached at .

Susan Llano is a Reference Librarian at the UC Davis Law Library.
She can be reached at .

Wikipedia and its accuracy (or lack thereof) is much in the news lately. Here are two recent incidents regarding mistaken reliance on Wikipedia by courts and newsgatherers.
“Evidence of Things Unseen: Lawyer Tripped Up by His, Wiki, Wiki Ways” by Mary Pat Gallagher, New York Lawyer, April 28, 2009.
A New Jersey judge who took judicial notice of information found on a Wikipedia page was reversed on appeal (and the case not remanded for retrial) on the grounds that Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia which can be edited by “anyone” does not meet the standard required in New Jersey Evidence Rule 201(b)(3).

“Punk’D by Wikipedia” by John L. Jackson Jr., Chronicle of Higher Education: The Chronicle Review, May 12, 2009. Electronic copy available at http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/index.php?id=1367
Along the same line as the previous article, a college student in Dublin, Ireland, after the death of French composer Maurice Jarre on March 28th, posted a false quote which he attributed to Jarre on Wikipedia. The false quotation was picked up by The Guardian as well as other news organizations and bloggers worldwide until the student finally confessed his prank. The student had wanted to know how fast the fake would travel in the news world. The Guardian was one of the papers who issued a public apology for failing to vet the quote before using it.

It looks like even journals must be looked at with a skeptical eye.
“The danger of drugs…and data” by Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, May 9, 2009. Electronic copy available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/09/bad-science-medical-journals-companies
Elsevier Australia, a major publisher of academic journals, has been shown to have created bogus “journals” containing only articles favoring major drugs put out by the drug industry. One of six such “journals”: “The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine” contained only reprinted summaries and articles favoring the use and safety of recently criticized drugs such as Vioxx and Fosamax.

“Understanding and Using the New Census Data” by Elana Broch, Information Outlook, v.13, no.3, April/May 2009, p.17, available online if you are a member of SLA http://www.sla.org/io/2009/04/688.cfm
If you have ever used Census data to answer a reference question, you know how confusing it can be. This short article gives an overview on using census data and gives explanations of key terms. The author stresses the importance of knowing where the numbers are coming from and how they are calculated. Most census data comes from “sampling,” so are either estimates or projections. She explains the differences between the numbers presented in Census 2000 and the numbers in the American Community Survey and how either data set can be used to calculate population estimates when using American FactFinder. The article ends with references to resources for further reading.