Should Students Use Wikipedia For Research?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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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.

Should you trust a wiki for academic research?


No, you should not use wikipedia as a source for academic papers

. Generally speaking, the scientific articles are quite accurate(of course there is always change and new discoveries), but there is reason to distrust any other type of article.

Why do academics hate Wikipedia?

Academics discredit the website for several reasons: articles can be written by anyone, not necessarily a world expert; editing and regulation are imperfect and

a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing

. Vandalism is also common.

How useful is Wikipedia?

Not only is Wikipedia

potentially useful for generating ideas, finding sources, and determining search terms

, but it is also potentially useful for remembering and understanding some of the tasks that are frequently part of good research-based writing: reviewing, conversing, revising, and sharing.

Should you use Wikipedia for research?

Wikipedia – Academic Use

Wikipedia

is not considered a credible source

. … However, citation of Wikipedia in may be considered unacceptable, because Wikipedia is not considered a credible or authoritative source.

What is Wikipedia useful for when doing research?

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.

How can you use Wikipedia in your research?

  1. Scan the article to get general information and terms you can use as keywords for further searching.
  2. Scan the article for references. …
  3. Cite Wikipedia articles in your paper only if you are pointing out something specific to Wikipedia.

Can we trust Wikipedia?


We do not expect you to trust us

Also, since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any time, articles may be prone to errors, including vandalism, so Wikipedia is not a reliable source. So please do not use Wikipedia to make critical decisions.

Why do schools not allow Wikipedia?

Wikipedia

is not a reliable source for

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. … Wikipedia generally uses reliable secondary sources, which vet data from primary sources.

How often is Wikipedia wrong?

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.

Why do students hate schools?

Loneliness and Bullying

In a school,

the lack of freedom often

leads to a feeling of loneliness. Additionally, the inability to communicate makes it difficult for students to make friends. Thus, they end up feeling lonely and unwilling to go to school. … This is another reason students become abhorrent to school.

Do teachers hate students?


Teachers not only dislike but hate such students

. All teachers will universally agree that bullying should be strictly prohibited, but some students find ways to bully other kids in the class. Those can either be students in the same class or maybe their juniors.

Is Wikipedia the best website?

Today, Wikipedia is

the eighth-most-visited site in the world

. The English-language version recently surpassed 6 million articles and 3.5 billion words; edits materialize at a rate of 1.8 per second. But perhaps more remarkable than Wikipedia's success is how little its reputation has changed.

How does Wikipedia help in education?

Wikis can

increase educational productivity

: Wikis support collaborative learning because Wikis can enable groups of students to work together to solve a problem, complete a project, etc. … Wikis promote active learning where students can actively participate in educational activities like writing, discussing, etc.

Does Wikipedia Make Money?


Wikipedia makes money via donations, investments, as well as merchandise sales

. In the future, it plans to launch an API that charges enterprises a fee for access to its data. Founded in 2001, Wikipedia has grown to become one of the world's most-frequented websites.

How does Wikipedia work?

Wikipedia is

written collaboratively by largely anonymous volunteers

. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent further disruption or vandalism.

Charlene Dyck
Author
Charlene Dyck
Charlene is a software developer and technology expert with a degree in computer science. She has worked for major tech companies and has a keen understanding of how computers and electronics work. Sarah is also an advocate for digital privacy and security.