Can I use Wikipedia? What is Wikipedia, anyway?
Answer
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which anyone can add to or edit in real time. It started in 2001 as an entirely open project, in which anyone could edit anything, but over time a system of editors and administrators have been developed to ensure some level of validity of content. According to the rules used by the English language Wikipedia, each entry should convey summaries of existing knowledge and not present the author's original research. Claims of fact require a reference to a reliable source. Wikipedia editors feel that readers, not the encyclopedia, are ultimately responsible for checking the truthfulness of the articles and making their own interpretations. As a result, the entries in Wikipedia change over time, sometimes frequently, unlike entries in encyclopedias or other reference works such as those in Credo Reference.
In 2016, Wikipedia was ranked fifth most popular websites globally.
Wikipedia results are among the first results that display when you do a Google search, so it's natural that you would take a look at them. Also, Wikipedia entries often have lists of citations at the end of the entry, in much the same way scholarly articles do, and it's worth exploring them, particularly if you have activated our LibKey Nomad browser extension, which links Wikipedia entry references to our library holdings. However, it's not a good idea to cite a Wikipedia entry in your academic work. You will always cite other, more reliable and scholarly sources, such as the specialized encyclopedias in Credo Reference or in the e-book collections, as well as research articles and monographs.
You can use Wikipedia instead as a foundational aid to find more scholarly or authoritative material, or as a way to gain an understanding that will help you better use the more scholarly sources you cite, a process which the library calls 'presearch'. This makes Wikipedia a 'works consulted', rather than a 'works cited' for your research.
Search Wikipedia when you:
Want to check the spelling of someone's name.
Need to find keywords to use in a database search.
Need to read an overview or history of a topic introduced in one of your classes.
Need to find background or disease-oriented information.
Need to find scholarly resources linked in a Wikipedia entry's list of references.
Need to find information about related topics linked at the bottom of a Wikipedia entry.