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Wikipedia as a Credible Source
Jon Castillo
MGT521
November 19, 2012
Robert Carter

Wikipedia as a Credible Source As everybody knows, Wikipedia is an online collaborative encyclopedia, which is created outside the traditional authorship, editorial, and copyright constraints (Parker, Strickler, Banappagari, 2012). In the simplest terms, the website is used to express encyclopedic knowledge over the Internet. It is designed to allow contribution of new information or the correcting of information contributed by others. The website is full of information, but how much of that information is accurate and should actually be considered credible is up for debate. On one side it is argued that use of this information is credible and valid, and on the other side it is argued that the information is unreliable and not worthy of citation.
Arguments for Wikipedia Wikipedia is basically a free encyclopedia that allows users to edit the information it contains. In the website’s own words, Wikipedia states that “their scientific articles come close to the level of accuracy in Encyclopedia Britannica (Wikipedia, 2012)”. When an outside source edits information it is reviewed and tested for reliability. Any edited information that is not accurate is taken out of the section that it appears in. The process of scrubbing doesn’t happen as quickly as preferred by most people, but the process does lead to the information being reliable. “The website’s ease of use is expected to serve as a self-regulating tool, designed to ensure or at least promote accurate, verifiable, and unbiased information from its 85,000 users. (Matei, Dobrescu, 2011)”. These facts lead students to believe that Wikipedia is indeed a credible source of information for scholarly use.
Arguments against Wikipedia
While Wikipedia does satisfy research requirements in the areas of currency, relevance and purpose, it does not satisfy requirements in the areas of authority and accuracy; due to the lack of traditional review structure and bias in individual articles. “Information on Wikipedia is contributed by anyone who wants to post material, and the expertise of the posters is not taken into consideration (Harvard Guide to Using Sources, 2012)”. The fact that information is not provided by experts can lead to a lot of errors, misinformation and bias. If anyone is allowed to edit the content there is an inherent lack of reliability and stability. And since the credentials of the authors are not checked, entries that exist are often not backed up by further research, which makes Wikipedia a questionable source of information for scholarly use.
It should also be pointed out that the website itself states: “Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism. Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or, if they choose to, with their real identity (Wikipedia, 2012).” Since credentials and currency are two of the most important factors to consider when deciding whether or not to use information from Wikipedia and experts do not even review the information that is posted, I would not be comfortable using the information for an essay.
Wikipedia as a Credible Source?
After doing some research and considering both sides of the argument I definitely agree that Wikipedia is not a credible source of information. I like Wikipedia and think it’s a good tool for referencing hobbies, but not a credible source to use for school work. I will sometimes use the website to get a general idea of what to look for when I am researching a topic or even to prove information to help win a bet, but I don’t utilize it in a way that requires me to actually cite it as a source. As the arguments against point out, the information provided may be outdated or possibly authored by someone who is not an expert in the field of the subject being presented. This makes it an unreliable source for me.
Conclusion
The information presented clearly reinforces my belief that Wikipedia should not be used in a manner that requires citation in scholarly papers; the authors of the information can rarely be verified, no specific credentials are required to post information, and anybody who owns or has access to a computer with Internet access can edit the information that is available. The lack of traditional author and review structure means that there will likely be erroneous and bias information. The comment made in the argument being made in favor of Wikipedia states that “The website’s ease of use is expected to serve as a self-regulating tool”. This is definitely a red flag that should be taken into consideration before using any of the information found on the website! In my opinion there are plenty of other verifiable resources available for students who are conducting research. I would recommend using one of those.

References

Wikipedia.com (2012) Wikipedia:About
Parker, Tammy; Strickler, Cindy; Banappagari, Prashanth. 2012 Wikipedia: Friend or Foe
Matei, Sorin Adam; Dobrescu, Caius. 2011. Wikipedia’s “Neutral Point of View”: Setting Conflict through Ambiguity. Information Society, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p40-51.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources. 2012 What’s wrong with Wikipedia?

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