User:Albentley 99/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.)

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I was recently tasked with reading and presenting a scientific paper in which WGS was the primary method of scientific investigation. Overall, I felt as though the article was well written and thoroughly researched, though the sources used seemed a bit old.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead Section: The lead section in this article is very well defined, providing a concise roadmap for the article. There are some minor syntactical errors (i.e. Whole genome sequencing has largely been used as a research tool, but was being introduced to clinics in 2014."), but it makes up for this with through citations. The citations themselves seem a bit on the old side (I saw none from after 2014). However, since this is a 2nd Gen sequencing technique, inclusion of older articles is likely warranted. The final paragraph of the lead section provides a description of seemingly similar, but completely different genomic analysis techniques, which, while interesting, is not covered anywhere else in the body of the article. Despite this, I found the lead section to be an informative and digestible introduction to the article.

Content and Sources: As stated previously, many of the articles sources are slightly older, with a majority of the sources dating back to before 2018. However, this may be warranted due to the method being developed years ago. Most of the newer sources (2018 and later) seem to refer mostly to feats achieved using the method rather than to changes to the method itself. Overall, thee content seems to cover a broad an equitable range of information about the method, from itsss history, to the finer details of how it works to its applications.

Tone and Balance: The article does a good job of remaining neutral, seemingly reporting sources objectively and comprehensively. This is likely due to the large and diverse body of editors who have edited the article as demonstrated by the edit history.

Organization and writing Quality: The article is very well organized with multiple sections full of information topical to each section. There are (very minor) syntactic and error in the article such as in the lead section. For example: "Whole genome sequencing has largely been used as a research tool, but was being introduced to clinics in 2014." However, this does not drastically affect the quality of the article, and it is still quite easy to read and interpret the relevant information.

Images and Media: Images in the history section are topical with informative captions describing a rough timeline of advancements made using WGS. Furthermore, information in the first image of the lead section provides links to additional articles that might help the reader broaden their knowledge of WGS. However, the Second image of the section doesn't really add anything of substantial value to the article, and has a geric caption that doesn't explicitly relate the image to WGS. Furthermore, there are no diagrams included in the article that demonstrate the basic broad methodology behind WGS, like that depicted in the omics-athon presentation.

Talk Page: While the majority of conversations are cordial and academically focused, a few result to slightly condescending attacks regarding language choices in the article. For example, see comment "Vague and Likely Incorrect". The head of the talk page gives the article a "B-Class rating" and a "Level Five vital article in Technology.

Overall: The article is very well organized and provides comprehensive information on the topic using relevant sources. However, I believe that the addition of well-put together diagrams displaying the process by which WGS works would go a long way in showing readers how the sequencing method actually works. Furthermore, new sources and developments surrounding WGS should be included in the article where applicable, in order to ensure that the current state of the field is adequately represented.