I remember reading, some time ago, of a study conducted that compared the accuracy of information available on Wikipedia to those of a standard, print encyclopedia. From the random sample, the articles on Wikipedia averaged more accurate. Of course, I don't remember the source of the study, so maybe it in itself was inaccurate, but I think the most important lesson from all of this is that encyclopedias in general, while a good source of general information, shouldn't be a primary source in an important work. Instead, authors should probably go to scientific journal articles, or other places that specialize specifically in the field or subject of their topic.