However, citation of Wikipedia in research papers may be considered unacceptable , because Wikipedia is not a reliable source. ... This is because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any moment. Although when an error is recognized, it is usually fixed.
Can Wikipedia be used as a reference?
Wikipedia is increasingly used by people in the academic community, from freshman students to distinguished professorship, as an easily accessible tertiary source for information about anything and everything, and as a quick “ready reference “, to get a sense of a concept or idea.
Can you reference Wikipedia?
Wiki is not paper , so you will need to use an electronic-citation format instead. ... You should not cite any particular author or authors for a Wikipedia article, in general. Wikipedia is collaboratively written. However, if you do need to find the list of authors of a particular article, you can check the Page history.
Is Wikipedia a reference source?
Wikipedia is not a reliable source for citations elsewhere on Wikipedia. Because it can be edited by anyone at any time, any information it contains at a particular time could be vandalism, a work in progress, or just plain wrong. ... Therefore, Wikipedia should not be considered a definitive source in and of itself.
How do you cite a Wikipedia page?
Structure to follow to cite a Wikipedia article in MLA style: “Article Title.” Website Title, Publisher (if different from website title) , Day Month Year published or updated, URL. Reference example: “Special Relativity.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 July 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity.
Is it bad to use Wikipedia as a reference?
However, citation of Wikipedia in research papers may be considered unacceptable , because Wikipedia is not a reliable source. ... This is because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any moment. Although when an error is recognized, it is usually fixed.
Is Wikipedia a primary source?
Wikipedia, as an encyclopedia, is a tertiary source . However, Wikipedia and sources that mirror or source information from Wikipedia may not be used as secondary or tertiary sources. Wikipedia articles are sometimes used as primary sources in articles about Wikipedia.
How accurate is Wikipedia?
But the vast majority of Wikipedia is filled with valuable and accurate information.” ... The paper found that Wikipedia's entries had an overall accuracy rate of 80 percent , whereas the other encyclopedias had an accuracy rate of 95 to 96 percent.
Who is Wikipedia owned by?
Wikipedia is a non-commercial website run by the Wikimedia Foundation , a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in San Francisco.
Is Wikipedia blocked in China?
China. Access to Wikipedia has varied over the years with the Chinese language version being controlled more tightly than other versions. As of April 2019, all versions of Wikipedia are blocked in Mainland China under the Great Firewall. ... Wikipedia was again blocked in China in October 2005.
Does Wikipedia use Harvard referencing?
A Wikipedia article is essentially just a webpage , so you should reference it in the same way you would usually reference a webpage. For Harvard style this is as follows: ... [online] Wikipedia. Available at: Article URL [Accessed Accessed date day, month, year].
What referencing does Wikipedia use?
It corresponds to the APA citation style , with additional quotation marks around the paper title (which are not present in the standard APA style). Also, the references are styled as footnotes rather than “(author year)”.
Does Wikipedia cite in MLA?
A Wikipedia article is essentially just a webpage , so you should cite it in the same way you would usually cite a webpage. For MLA 8 format this is as follows: ... “Article title.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Published date day, month, year, Article URL.
Should students be allowed to use Wikipedia?
Students agree that Wikipedia may be the easiest to site to access information and it is especially helpful in history classes. ... The consensus is that students should be allowed to use the website to gather information as pages are , for the most part, fairly accurate.
When should you cite Wikipedia?
The answer from Wikipedia is clear: at least in research projects, “you probably shouldn't be citing Wikipedia” . Why's that? Well, Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias and handbooks, is a tertiary source. Tertiary sources are those that take their information from other primary and secondary sources.
Why might Wikipedia not be such a good reference for us to use?
However, citation of Wikipedia in research papers may be considered unacceptable, because Wikipedia is not considered a credible or authoritative source. This is especially true considering anyone can edit the information given at any time , and although most errors are immediately fixed, some errors maintain unnoticed.
