User:Jacobyl3/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Western honey bee

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because the western honey bee is a very common and familiar insect which serves an essential ecological and agricultural role as a pollinator and producer of honey and beeswax. This article matters because it provides fundamental information about this insect with regard to its biology, history, and dynamics in a changing world. By providing this general information, the public at large can inform themselves and learn more about the western honey bee and the role that it plays in our world. My preliminary impression of this article was that it is quite thorough with the information it provided even if the source data was sparse and not the most comprehensive, with the exemplary point being the conservation status as data deficient in the initial descriptor while the information provided on the dynamics, distribution, and habitat were quite thorough with a lot of hyperlinks to additional readings and other articles. I really enjoyed reading through this article as it was quite informative and easy to read, understand, and digest to glean important information from it, so this article seemed like an ideal candidate for evaluation while being related to the insect physiology component of the Bio Sci H195 course.

Evaluate the article
The lead section includes an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes and defines the article's topic about the western honey bee that allows a reader to identify the topic based on the first sentence. The first paragraph is a simple two sentences that while informative about the origin of the name, is not the most helpful in terms of getting to a brief overview of the most important things about the western honey bee in this article. The lead section does go on later to include a brief description of the article's major sections, and it does not include any information that is not present in the article as the lead section is concise and not overly detailed. That considered, a reader is able to get a quick overview about the western honey bee from reading the whole lead section.

The content of the article is relevant to the topic and is up-to-date with relevant information. There does not appear to be any content that does not belong, nor any content that is missing from the article. It is not clear whether any of Wikipedia's equity gaps are addressed, though there is historical representation of honeybee domestication to a thorough extent as a topic of interest. To this end, this Wikipedia article is good as it covers all important aspects of the western honey bee without putting too much weight on one part to the point of neglecting another.

The article is written from a neutral point of view, and there does not appear to be any claims that are heavily biased toward a particular position. To this end, no particular viewpoint is overrepresented or underrepresented, with the minority and fringe viewpoints being addressed as points of future investigation. This article does not attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another, as it describes substantial differences of interpretation among published reliable sources fairly with a neutral tone and balanced perspective.

This Wikipedia article on the western honey bee is based on the best sources available, though nearly all but not every one of the facts in the article are backed up by a reliable secondary source of information. For instance, the sections on the life cycle and beekeeping for the western honey bee need additional citations for verification as of late 2017, though the talk boards present relevant discussion that may just need the proper matching to verify the facts of the article with the appropriate sources. The sources provided are thorough as they reflect the available literature on the topic of the western honey bee, and these sources are for the most part current. The sources are also written by a diverse set of authors that includes historically marginalized individuals where possible. There may be some better sources including peer-reviewed articles in place of the provided ScienceDaily and other daily news coverages and other random websites. However, the few links that were checked among the citations, hyperlinks, and references do seem to work well.

The organization and writing quality of this Wikipedia article on the western honey bee are quite good. The article is well-written as it is concise, clear, and easy to read. The article does not appear to have any grammatical or spelling errors, and the article is sensibly well-organized into sections that reflect the major points of the topic.

The article includes well-captioned images that are laid out in a visually appealing way that enhances the understanding of the western honey bee, and the images appear to adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations.

The article's talk page with discussion among Wikipedia editors are edifying and informative as it discusses the outdated terminology of the western honey bee as European despite its prevalence all over the world, a thorough note on beekeeping that can be parsed into future expansions on the sections of beekeeping in the article itself, and a fun picture of the day submission to be featured on the main page of Wikipedia. The article is rated as a level-4 vital article rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is also a part of a few WikiProjects as high-importance on the Insects: Hymenoptera, mid-importance on Agriculture, and copy edited by a member of the Guild of Copy Editors. The way that Wikipedia discusses this topic is as a general overview of the western honey bee beyond just its biology and physiology as it also covers its historical and agricultural importance for a more comprehensive encyclopedic entry for general knowledge use as opposed to the scientific physiology that we delve into for the purposes of class.

My overall impression of this article is that it is strong in the breadth of information provided with significant connections to other pages on Wikipedia and a plethora of references, though it could be improved with more targeted citations for verification on the life cycle and beekeeping sections to support the facts stated in the article. I would assess the article's completeness as being well-developed but still would benefit from further development and review to update with more up-to-date information that may have arisen since its last major edits.