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Revision as of 16:06, 8 September 2009 by Brews ohare (talk | contribs) (Some rewording: no change in content)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Essay on editing Misplaced Pages | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. | Shortcut |
 | This page in a nutshell: Be very careful when editing or creating articles of a scientific nature. Check and double check everything you write. Make sure you quote correctly from sources, giving the context consistent with that given in the sources. If you are an expert with a working knowledge of the subject, make sure you are as rigorous when writing for Misplaced Pages as you are when you write for scientific journals |
When editing or creating an article of any type, editors are expected to abide with Misplaced Pages's core policies. In case of scientific articles, the most relevant policies are that original research is not allowed and that everything that is written is properly sourced. While sticking to these rules is absolutely necessary, this is not sufficient to guarantee that an article won't contain serious mistakes. In case of articles of a scientific nature, errors or misleading statements can easily slip in, even if the editor is an expert in the subject of the article. Since Misplaced Pages is often consulted by students and scientists, such errors can have a negative impact on society, as well as be highly damaging to Misplaced Pages's reputation as a reliable source.
To prevent dispute arising from context, the following guidelines are recommended.
- Check every nontrivial statement you intent to insert into an article. Determine whether it is possible that your statement could be invalid under some possible circumstances. To find out, you may need to do study carefully the entire source in which the statement is made or look in other sources. The necessary conditions that are assumed for the validity of a statement made on some particular page of a technical book, may well be mentioned many pages earlier. If you find that the statement is not valid in general, you need to include the context within which the statement is explicitly true.
- If you make edits to an existing article, which you have checked as described in the previous point, and you find that a statement you want insert disagrees with other statements made in the same article, then you need to get to the bottom of this conflict. It may be that the conflicting statement is true under some conditions not explicitly mentioned in the article. The conflicting statement may then be true, despite apparent conflict, but it simply applies differently. Before deciding to delete material, you need to convince yourself that the conflicting statements really are wrong in any context consistent with the way the Misplaced Pages article is written. In case of doubts, you need to discuss this on the talk page of the article and/or contact members of a relevant WikiProject.
- If you find yourself in a dispute with other editors about a technical point, then discuss this as much as possible from first principles using the underlying theory. That approach tends to bring out the proper context, which often is the source of the dispute. Do not simply throw around direct quotes from textbooks or scientific articles, as then the proper context may be missing. These sorts of discussions are in no way a violation of the ban on original research.
To prevent heated dispute over meanings, the following guidelines are recommended.
- Assume from the outset that multiple meanings of technical terms are likely to occur, whether or not you are aware of them.
- Google search for meanings proposed by other editors, rather than searching only to back up your own understanding.
- An overall goal should be to learn from others, not just instruct.