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In fact, some instructors may advise their students to read entries for scientific concepts on Wikipedia as a way to begin understanding those concepts. Nevertheless, when you're doing academic research, you should be extremely cautious about using Wikipedia.
Most academics agree that you shouldn’t cite Wikipedia as a source in your academic writing, and universities often have rules against doing so. This is partly because of concerns about its reliability, and partly because it’s a tertiary source.
- What are scientific citation styles?A scientific citation style is a system of source citation that is used in scientific disciplines. Some commonly used scientific citation styles...
- What are the different types of citation styles?There are many different citation styles used across different academic disciplines, but they fall into three basic approaches to citation: Paren...
- Is a source annotation the same thing as an abstract?A source annotation in an annotated bibliography fulfills a similar purpose to an abstract : they’re both intended to summarize the approach a...
- Can I cite Wikipedia in my paper?Most academics agree that you shouldn’t cite Wikipedia as a source in your academic writing , and universities often have rules against doing so...
- What are the main elements of a Wikipedia citation?A Wikipedia citation usually includes the title of the article, “Wikipedia” and/or “Wikimedia Foundation,” the date the article was last updated,...
- When do I need to use a hanging indent?Hanging indents are used in reference lists in various citation styles to allow the reader to easily distinguish between entries. You should app...
- What is a hanging indent?A hanging indent is used to indent all lines of a paragraph except the first. When you create a hanging indent, the first line of the paragraph s...
- What are the main differences between APA and MLA?APA and MLA style both use parenthetical in-text citations to cite sources and include a full list of references at the end, but they differ i...
- How do I use parenthetical citations in Chicago style?A parenthetical citation in Chicago author-date style includes the author’s last name, the publication date, and, if applicable, the relevant p...
People also ask
Is Wikipedia a reliable source for academic research?
Should I use Wikipedia if I'm doing academic research?
Is Wikipedia a good source for a research paper?
Why should you cite sources for Wikipedia content?
We advise special caution when using Wikipedia as a source for research. Anyone may edit an article, deleting accurate information or adding false information. See also Reliability of Wikipedia and the general disclaimer.
However, if you are doing academic studies of any kind, it's likely you have been warned not to use it. So should you use Wikipedia, and how far can you trust it? Learning outcome By the end of this activity you should be able to judge the trustworthiness of information you find in Wikipedia. 2. How to evaluate a Wikipedia article
- Short and Full Citations
- Multimedia
- When Not to Cite
- Consecutive Cites of The Same Source
- How to Place An Inline Citation Using Ref Tags
- What Information to Include
- Examples
- Links and ID Numbers
- Say Where You Read It
- Dates and Reprints
A full citation fully identifies a reliable source and, where applicable, the place in that source (such as a page number) where the information in question can be found. For example: Rawls, John....
For an image or other media file, details of its origin and copyright status should appear on its file page. Image captions should be referenced as appropriate just like any other part of the article. A citation is not needed for descriptions such as alt text that are verifiable directly from the image itself, or for text that merely identifies a s...
Citations are not used on disambiguation pages (sourcing for the information given there should be done in the target articles). Citations are often omitted from the lead section of an article, insofar as the lead summarizes information for which sources are given later in the article, although quotations and controversial statements, particularly ...
Material that is repeated multiple times in a paragraph does not require an inline citation for every mention. If you say an elephant is a mammal more than once, provide one only at the first instance. Avoid cluttering text with redundant citations like this: Inline citations allow the reader to associate a given piece of material in an article wit...
To create a footnote, use the ... syntax at the appropriate place in the article text, for example: 1. Justice is a human invention. Rawls, John. ''A Theory of Justice''. Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 1. It ... which will be displayed as something like: 1. Justice is a human invention.It ... It will also be necessary to gene...
Listed below is the information that a typical inline citation or general reference will provide, though other details may be added as necessary. This information is included in order to identify the source, assist readers in finding it, and (in the case of inline citations) indicate the place in the source where the information is to be found. (If...
Books
Citations for books typically include: 1. name of author(s) 2. title of book 3. volume when appropriate 4. name of publisher 5. place of publication 6. date of publication of the edition 7. chapter or page numbers cited, if appropriate 8. edition, if not the first edition 9. ISBN(optional) Citations for individually authored chapters in books typically include: 1. name of author(s) 2. title of the chapter 3. name of book's editor 4. name of book and other details as above 5. chapter number or...
Journal articles
Citations for journal articles typically include: 1. name of the author(s) 2. year and sometimes month of publication 3. title of the article 4. name of the journal 5. volume number, issue number, and page numbers (article numbers in some electronic journals) 6. DOI and/or other identifiersare optional and can often be used in place of a less stable URL (although URLs may also be listed in a journal citation)
Newspaper articles
Citations for newspaper articles typically include: 1. byline(author's name), if any 2. title of the article 3. name of the newspaper in italics 4. city of publication (if not included in name of newspaper) 5. date of publication 6. page number(s) are optional and may be substituted with negative number(s) on microfilm reels
A citation ideally includes a link or ID number to help editors locate the source. If you have a URL (web page) link, you can add it to the title part of the citation, so that when you add the citation to Wikipedia the URL becomes hidden and the title becomes clickable. To do this, enclose the URL and the title in square brackets—the URL first, the...
"Say where youread it" follows the practice in academic writing of citing sources directly only if you have read the source yourself. If your knowledge of the source is secondhand—that is, if you have read Jones (2010), who cited Smith (2009), and you want to use what Smith (2009) said—make clear that your knowledge of Smith is based on your readin...
Date a book that is identically reprinted or printed-on-demand to the first date in which the edition became available. For example, if an edition of a book was first released in 2005 with an identical reprinting in 2007, date it to 2005. If substantive changes were made in a reprint, sometimes marked on the verso with "Reprinted with corrections",...
Oct 22, 2021 · Edited information should be verifiable. For one thing, this means that there should be sufficient citations from reliable sources. Unlike in much academic research and as a rule of thumb, everything (or at least every paragraph) should be backed up with a source. Fortunately, Wikipedia is not that strict about citation formats as journals.
The threshold for how significant an academic should be to warrant having a Wikipedia article about them is, very roughly, at the level one would expect of a full professor at a major research university; see Wikipedia:Notability (academics) for more detailed guidance. Choosing sources
