At some point in your career as a student, undoubtedly, you will ask yourself, "should I use Wikipedia?"

The short answer is yes; you can use it. The longer answer is that you can use Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, but perhaps not for a reason (s) you think you should or can.

Wikipedia is not known for its rigorous editing and commitment to accuracy. This is because there are hundreds of thousands of articles on the site, ranging from 25 words to 10,000 words or more. There is no way a small editorial team, primarily volunteers, can keep up with reviewing every article, especially when everyday contributors can make edits directly to the page's text. For this reason, even if the content appears true, it is not advisable to cite it as a source or take its claims as truth without corroboration. However, this brings up some other valuable points regarding the world's largest and most comprehensive encyclopedic resource.

Finding Sources

Do not use Wikipedia as a source for your academic papers, professional presentations, or informal arguments. Instead, use Wikipedia for its sources. Wikipedia tends to loosely follow the Chicago Manual of Style, meaning footnotes are the preferred citation method. Hovering over one of the blue-colored superscript numbers will give you the exact source for the claim that preceded it. The citations often include necessary materials like links, page numbers, and authors. The information in these citations can be helpful to researchers, as those same sources could provide valuable information to a research project.

Wikipedia's "Notes" and "Further Reading" sections also have an additional advantage, especially for those looking for sources on more obscure topics: they provide citations for sources. I have a knack for picking research topics with few available references. However, by scouring the Wikipedia pages on some of these topics and paying close attention to the bottom back matter of the article, you can find information of value for your project. Perhaps it will be a link to an online repository of primary source materials or an academic article or book you will need to request through your institution's library. Either way, if there is useful information or potentially useful information contained in the source, you will want to get ahold of it

Basic Information

Wikipedia does have its advantages, namely providing a broad overview of many topics. I believe there is an argument to be made for using Wikipedia as a study tool. When preparing for a test, the best source of information will come from textbooks, lecture notes, and other class materials, like PowerPoints and handouts. However, it is always possible, and often likely, that a lecture will cover information that the textbook does not. Textbooks are usually used to augment a lecture, not repeat the subject verbatim. In a case like this, perhaps an important point will be missed while furiously scribbling your notes. But when preparing for a test, it is best not to fret. This is when Wikipedia can step in and provide a useful tool and database. While perhaps not every word of Wikipedia should be taken as truth, the broad overview of a topic is usually accurate. In short, Wikipedia can be a good auxiliary tool for researching or preparing for a test.

Researching the Public Domain

Wikipedia, or more specifically, its cousin, Wikimedia Commons, can also provide a brilliant resource for navigating the use of copyrighted material. If you want to put together a presentation focused on music clips and offer it to a large audience or potentially publish your work someday, using Wiki Commons can avoid headaches regarding copyright law and infringement. Wiki Commons hosts millions of free-to-use media materials, including aud io recordings, photos, illustrations, videos, logos, and more. If you want to utilize images in your work academically or professionally, the Wiki Commons' repository can prove to be a valuable asset. The Wiki Commons is part of the larger Wikimedia Foundation, of which Wikipedia is also part. Searching through some of the Foundation's other sites and resources may provide additional tools.

Wikipedia may not be as unreliable as many academics claim. The internet's largest free encyclopedia can have its uses. Again, it is best to avoid outright citations of Wikipedia pages, but using it for the specific purposes mentioned above can aid your research, test preparation, and fair use of arguments. Wikipedia may not be used for what you originally thought. But the devil is in the details, as the saying goes, and researchers should be aware of the online search tool's pitfalls