College: Wikipedia Not Source for Papers
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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The Middlebury College history department has issued an edict: “Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source.”
Well, yeah. Even in high school, we weren’t allowed to cite the encyclopedia. Not even Britannica, which is prepared by geniune experts and peer reviewed.
I like Wikipedia and cite it frequently for the blog. Academic research, though, should rely on primary and secondary sources, not tertiary ones.
Via Bill Jempty
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About James Joyner
I agree, although I had a professor in graduate school who cited Wikipedia in lectures. But I guess tenure gave him a little leeway :-)
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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.
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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?”
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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.
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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…
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