Does reading a lot of Wikipedia give people a wrong idea how science works?

[Ravenshire]

Anyone who takes Wiki as a solid source is being mentally lazy. You have to take each article on its merits regarding accuracy and detail.

Thant is the common view of Wiki, and there is some truth to it.

But...

...a review of 110 studies published in 2014 concluded “Wikipedia is generally a reliable source of information” across almost all domains studied.

Source

From what I've read on the subject, Wiki's main failings are in areas of esoterica, subjects that few people concern themselves with, providing few editors, and pop culture, where "accurate information" is constantly changing and editor opinions drive more edits (and edit wars) than actual facts. In general, if you go looking for astronomical data on nearby stars, flight characteristics of a boing 767, or the nutritional information of the top five crops produced in India, you'll get information at least as good as Britannica. But, if you go looking for the mating rituals of Klingons (or the Kardashians, equally alien and repulsive) or information about semi-professional bowlers in Bend, Oregon, your results are gonna be much more suspect.