Should Wikipedia be used in college research papers?

[PrinceofWands]

I'm growing curious as to what types of research papers people are assigned. My research assignments are usually:

8-15 pages
10-20 sources minimum with at least 1/4 - 1/2 primary, and all secondary sources from journals or academic/authoritative works


For my major history & polisci research projects it's more like:

15-30 pages
30+ primary sources
any additional sources should mostly address historiography of the subject


There are any number of other types of papers - reviews, subject reports, analyses, etc that go 1-5 pages with much looser requirements. Those are about the only times I can consider internet sources, encyclopedias, or anything similar.

 

[msparish]

Haven't read the thread, so sorry if it has already been mentioned...in college papers Wikipedia should never be used as a source. However, it is very good at finding other, more reputable sources to use and can generally point you in a good direction.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: msparish
Haven't read the thread, so sorry if it has already been mentioned...in college papers Wikipedia should never be used as a source. However, it is very good at finding other, more reputable sources to use and can generally point you in a good direction.

I believe that Wikipedia is a good source to read up on for personal knowledge and useful in writing papers because you need to get a better grasp of what you will write about. That said, when you need to quote or reference material, you need to find a more reputable source.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Depends on the professor.

All my business professors encourage wikipedia only because articles on wiki get updated often, and the fact that most hear-say business news is often changed by the minute from various sources. It's just the nature of the subject.

As for other professors, they discourage it simply because the information is too readily accessable for credibility. More notably, science and social science professors won't even let me think about quoting anything from wikipedia. But then again, it's been ages since I've dealed with anything outside of business since I'm only doing core business classes left.

 

[Dritnul]

Originally posted by: Kenazo
Wikipedia should be viewed as an undergrad research paper at best, thus it should never be used as reference material. 🙂