Comments on: College: Wikipedia Not Source for Papers

By: Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:12:45 +0000

Wikipedia Being Cited in Court Cases...

I missed this January 29 New York Times (registration) story when it first came out, but apparently More than 100 judicial rulings have relied on Wikipedia, beginning in 2004, including 13 from circuit courts of appeal, one step below the...

By: Billy

Billy — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:47:53 +0000

Wikipedia is a lot less citable than Britannica, for the obvious reason that anyone can edit it. Still, good policy that should be self-evident.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:09:31 +0000

According to Volokh Conspiracy, some courts are starting to cite Wikipedia. It depends on the context. If they're citing it for Stuff We Knew Anyway, not so bad. It's a peculiarity of legal writing that nothing is *really* true unless some other authority has said so. Rather a medieval mindset in some ways -- "never mind what *you* say about 2 + 2, what did *Aristotle* say about it?"

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:33:20 +0000

According to Volokh Conspiracy, some courts are starting to cite Wikipedia. That's a might troubling, far more than some student's use in a term paper.

By: John Norris Brown

John Norris Brown — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:20:56 +0000

I agree, although I had a professor in graduate school who cited Wikipedia in lectures. But I guess tenure gave him a little leeway :-)