User:Tegan.tcr517/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

 * Article title: Broad-spectrum antibiotic
 * I chose this article because it is related to the course and it was listed as low quality (Start) and high priority within the Microbiology WikiProject page

Lead evaluation
The introductory sentence is clear and concise. The lead provides a brief introduction to each of the sections in the article and does not have information not included in the article. In my opinion, it is not overly detailed.

Content evaluation
The content is relevant to the topic and each major section was mentioned in the lead. The article was last edited in April of this year but there is only one source that is from the last five years, the rest are 9 years or older. In my opinion, I think that the Risks section should include information about antibiotic resistance but currently only includes information about disruption of commensal bacteria in humans. Under the Bacterial targets section I think that the information about the classification of bacteria is overly detailed and instead should have more information about antibiotics instead. I think the article should also include a history section about antibiotics as well and a section comparing broad-spectrum vs. narrow-spectrum antibiotics.

Tone and balance evaluation
I found the article to be neutral and well balanced. I didn't detect any particular biases or attempts to persuade the reader, the article just includes statements of facts.

Sources and references evaluation
There is appropriate referencing through most of the article but in the section Bacterial targets there is only one single reference given and it's in the second last sentence. The rest of the section only includes links to other Wikipedia articles. There is also only one reference provided in the Examples of broad spectrum antibiotics section, with the rest only linking Wikipedia articles. There are also no citations for the two images used in the article. Only one source is from the last 5 years and the rest are 9 years or older. I checked a few of the links and they currently work. There are also only nine sources cited for the entire article which seems quite low.

Organization evaluation
Overall the article is concise and easy to read and understand including a layperson with little background knowledge on the topic. I didn't notice any glaring grammatical or spelling errors. The organization of the article is good, it follows the major points from the lead and in the same order.

Images and media evaluation
There are two images included in the article and both are well captioned but the sources are not cited. The first image is visually appealing but doesn't really lend to the understanding of the topic. The second one is good because it provides a simple table of common disease causing bacteria and antibiotics that can be used against them which is relevant to the topic and easy to read.

Talk page evaluation
There are only a few comments on the Talk page for this article. One is a suggestion to have a more comprehensive list of broad spectrum antibiotics. Another questions the accuracy of the information in the table that includes common bacteria and the antibiotics that work against them. And another is from a user who appeared to be doing a similar assignment for medical school (evaluating and editing an article) in 2017. The most recent comment is from August 2019.

The article is a part of three WikiProjects: Pharmacology, Microbiology, and Medicine. It is rated as Start-class, and high-importance except for the Medicine WikiProject which classifies it as mid-importance.

The talk page is mostly just discussing the quality of the article and not really discussing the topic of broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Overall impressions
Overall evaluation

I think that, as is, the article is a good place to start for laypeople who want to learn a little bit about antibiotics but otherwise is an underdeveloped article. I think there should be more information about antibiotic resistance and about why/when broad spectrum antibiotics are used and the history of antibiotic use. The article also needs to be edited to improve the citations as some of the sections are lacking citation