Abstract: To manage information quality (IQ) effectively, one needs to know how IQ changes over
time, what causes it to change, and whether the changes can be predicted. In this paper we analyze the
structure of IQ change in Wikipedia, an open, collaborative general encyclopedia. We found several
patterns in Wikipedia’s IQ process trajectories and linked them to article types. Drawing on the results
of our analysis, we develop a general model of IQ change that can be used for reasoning about IQ
dynamics in many different settings, including traditional databases.