The Problem with Wikipedia

History researchers should only use "wiki" sources to the extent that they realize their strengths (and more importantly) their limitations.

According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education <http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/1328/> or <http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/1328/wikipedia-founder-discourages-academic-use-of-his-creation> June 12, 2006, "Even Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, says he wants to get the message out to college students that they shouldn’t use it for class projects or serious research."

A recent New Yorker article "Know it All," by Stacy Schiff, July 21, 2006, p. 42 (also available from LexisNexis), noted "Wikipedia beats every other source when it comes to breadth, efficiency, and accessibility. Yet the site's virtues are also liabilities." Those liabilities include pages being created by "moonbats," lots of errors, scattershot coverage of topics, and poor writing.

For history topics, the information on Wikipedia is completely inadequate when compared to standard encyclopedias (much less scholarly monographs). For pop culture topics, it may have more usefulness. But the basic principle of wiki promotes amateurs over experts.  Professional academics should attach some value to expertise.   Academics require training that brings depth of knowledge and explicit acknowledgement of sources.

For an interesting article on how wiki techniques might be useful for historians, click here <http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42>.

For another department's attitude, see, "A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia as a Research Source."
 

Page Title:  "The Problem with Wikipedia"
Website Name: Methods of Research and Writing for History
Author: Brian A. Pavlac
URL:  <http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/methods/wikiped.html>
Last Date Updated/Revised:  26 September 2007

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