Wikipedia:CARL Medical Editing Initiative/Fall 2019/Reliable Sources

  Reliable Sources for Wikipedia

Online Training Module: Editing Medical Content on Wikipedia

 What evidence is appropriate to use in Wikipedia articles?


 * Content that is biomedical information must accurately summarize recent, high quality, published secondary sources, where experts in the field have already gathered up and defined current knowledge. Such sources are described in the WP:MEDRS guideline, which has broad and deep consensus in the community.

 Summary of WP:MEDRS
 * Examples of acceptable sources:
 * Literature reviews or meta-analyses published in high quality journals (e.g.: Cochrane Reviews)
 * Statements and clinical practice guidelines shared by major medical/scientific authorities (NIH, NAS, CDC, NHS, FDA, mainstream colleges of medicine)
 * Textbooks are also acceptable.


 * Examples of non-acceptable sources:
 * Research papers, including clinical trial papers, are generally avoided, as they are communicating new findings, which may or may not be or become accepted knowledge in the field.
 * Anything published by a predatory publisher or marginal journal (for the latter, being MEDLINE indexed is typically a minimum).
 * Sources older than around 7 years (there are, however, fields where new reviews are not generated regularly -- in those cases older sources are fine).
 * University or hospital website resources.

Patient Centered Outcomes Research
Patient centered outcomes research (PCOR) is clinical research that focuses on patient's beliefs, needs, and opinions along with the expertise of a physician or health care professional. The results of PCOR research can be used to improve the content that people are accessing online in Wikipedia. Project Page: Integrating Patient-centered Outcomes Research into Wikipedia Resources: The The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute maintains a search of PCOR literature, which focuses on patient engagement in research. Note that not all articles retrieved using this search are secondary sources.