I’m not very familiar with how Wikipedia vets the sources in the references/external links. I was wondering whether there are manual or automated checks for cyclic sources, for example a Wikipedia page cites a source for something, but such source after a few rounds of citing would go back to the same Wikipedia page.

  • Does that happen with Wikipedia?
  • Does it matter? I presume that would invalidate the source?
  • How do they make sure it does not happen? Is there an automated check or something?
    • liori@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I do not have notes from that time anymore, sorry. I do recall though that after following a chain of citations I ended up at the paper in the center of this controversy. Nobody sane would cite in now except to point out its flaws, but if there’s a modern paper that cites a 10 year old paper that cites a 30 year old paper that cites it—people usually won’t notice.