User:Stellur/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Name of article: Cell division Cell division

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.)

Briefly explain why you chose it: I chose it because cell division is a topic relevant to the course Cell Biology I am currently enrolled in. Cell division is critical for growth, repair, reproduction, and maintaining the equilibrium of an organism's cellular makeup, contributing significantly to the life cycle and functionality of living organisms.

Why it matters: Studying cell division is integral to various fields, from fundamental biological processes to disease treatment, genetics, and advancements in technology and agriculture. It's a foundational aspect of life sciences that permeates several disciplines and has far-reaching implications.

Preliminary impressions: The article is very well-written, and has many reliable sources. It describes each phase of the cell cycle in depth, as well as goes on to also describe differences in cell division between living organisms. There is also a good use of images in accompanying the text.

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

 * Does the lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Yes: "Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two daughter cells." It gives a overall idea of what cell division is and what it function is
 * Does the lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Yes, the lead section is very detailed and throughly written. Reading the lead section would give the reader a general idea of the cell cycle without having to go and read the subsections if they wanted a quick summary. The lead includes information on all the different stages of mitosis and meiosis, as well as information on variation of cell cycle division between eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
 * Does the lead include information that is not present in the article? (It shouldn't.)
 * No, all the information is covered in the subsections of the article
 * Is the lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * While the lead is very rich in content, it is also very over detailed. There are a lot of sentences that could be summarized or taken out to make the lead section shorter and easier to read. Right after the introductory sentence, it goes on to talk about eukaryotes. I think the organization would benefit to move the summary of mitosis and meiosis up. The information of unicellular microorganisms could definitely be cut out from the lead section with one sentence to summarize the big paragraph. Rather all this information could go into the subsection of bacteria.

Content

 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Yes, all the information included is related to the topic of cell division and the cell cycle
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes, the article has been recently updated/edited, and the sources seem to be very recent publications (2002 - 2022)
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * All the content belongs in the article, however the article could benefit from talking about cell checkpoints for cell damage/size/Dna replication. It could include a few subsection of the enzymes involved in the regulation of the cell cycle, as well as what would happen if there was a mutation in any of these enzymes (cancer). There can also be a subsection added on cancer.
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics?
 * No

Tone and Balance

 * Is the article neutral?
 * Yes the language used is neutral and objective
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * I did not find any bias or opinion expressed in the article. All information stated seemed to be facts backed by a reliable source
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * No, there were no viewpoints stated
 * Are minority or fringe viewpoints accurately described as such?
 * No
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * No it does not aim to persuade the reader, but rather inform and educate the reader about cell division

Sources and References

 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * For the most part yes, however there are many sentences that could use a in-line citation. For example:
 * "Cell division gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is maintained. In general, mitosis (division of the nucleus) is preceded by the S stage of interphase (during which the DNA replication occurs) and is followed by telophase and cytokinesis; which divides the cytoplasm, organelles, and cell membrane of one cell into two new cells containing roughly equal shares of these cellular components. "
 * This sentence has a lot of information being stated on the cell cycle, however there is no source stated
 * "Prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) usually undergo a vegetative cell division known as binary fission, where their genetic material is segregated equally into two daughter cells, but there are alternative manners of division, such as budding, that have been observed. All cell divisions, regardless of organism, are preceded by a single round of DNA replication."
 * This paragraph talk about cell division in prokaryotes however is not backed up by any source
 * The whole subdivision on eukaryotes has no inline citations or sources even cited - this is a lot of information to not be cited
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Yes there is a lot of sources cited, and a lot of the come from biology textbooks and peer-reviewed journals/scientific articles
 * Are the sources current?
 * Yes they seem to range from early 2000s to 2022, which is fairly current
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible?
 * The sources used come from a variety of authors/journals and scientists. The articles include research from different areas of the world which may include authors/scientists who are underrepresented in science
 * Are there better sources available, such as peer-reviewed articles in place of news coverage or random websites? (You may need to do some digging to answer this.)
 * For the most part, the sources used come mostly from biology textbooks which are really good reliable sources. A few cites like Nature and ScienceNature were used, which are still fairly relevant scientific sites, but could be replaced by peer-reviewed articles
 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * Yes the links took me to the correct source/literature cited

Organization and writing quality

 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * The article is very well-written, clear and easy to read. There are not very complicated words used which helps a individual not specialized in biology to easily understand the cell division cycle
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * No there wasn't a lot of grammatical errors that I caught.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * Yes the article is organized into subsections of the different phases in mitosis/meiosis, variation in cell division between living organisms as well as a subdivision of cell repair.

Images and Media

 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Yes, there are a good amount of images added to the article. All of the images are very relevant and help the reader visualize the cell cycle process. The images are not only appealing but also accomplish the purpose of providing visual representation of the cell division cycle
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Yes all the images have captions that describe what it is the image shows (a brief summary of the image)
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Yes they all seem to come from wikipedia's page
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
 * Yes, they don't distract the reader from the information and don't interfere with the organization/flow of the article. The images are located on the side of the subsections that it relates to, which helps the reader visualize the content they are reading. I really liked the image of the forms of mitosis in eukaryotes as it is really detailed.

Talk page discussion

 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Conversation on the subsection eukaryotic cell division - to be made more clear and easier to understand
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * It is rated a C-class, and is part of the WikiProject Molecular Biology
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * It doesn't differ that much, all the information is similar to what we are learning now in class just on a more basic level

Overall impressions

 * What is the article's overall status?
 * The article is assessed as being a C-class which means the article is substantial but still has missing information/references
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * The descriptions of the cell cycle are very well written and organization. The layout of the article is also very well down with the use of images
 * How can the article be improved?
 * The cell cycle checkpoints need to be explained in further detail, with more content on the enzymes involved in the cell division cycle. A section on the history/discovery of cell division can be added, as well as a section on current research and experiments being done to understand cell division
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
 * The article is well-developed, for a topic with so much information and content to write about, this article provides a really good head start and foundation into the basics of cell division