Develop with Derby: Finding and Evaluating Sources of Information

There are strengths and weaknesses to Wikipedia and it is important to be aware of them before using it to find information for your assignments.

Advantages of Wikipedia

• It is easy to use.
• Covers a wide range of topics and subjects
• Good for providing a general overview of a topic 
• It is updated frequently. New information can be added to the site within minutes. This is not the case with other scholarly encyclopedias, particularly print ones, as due to editorial limitations they are usually updated annually.  
• Citations in Wikipedia offer a wider array of materials, including articles and resources that are available for free and online.

Disadvantages of Wikipedia

• Editors on Wikipedia are not necessarily experts. Authorship on Wikipedia is often anonymous or obscured and therefore the information can't be considered credible or reliable
• Articles are always changing, making them difficult to cite in your research. An article you read today, may look quite different tomorrow.
• Articles can be vandalised, providing wildly inaccurate information.

Citing encyclopedia articles in assignments is usually not recommended, and this is definitely the case when it comes to Wikipedia. The reason is very simple: One should not completely depend on information provided by anonymous contributors, because you do not know if the person who wrote or edited the article are qualified in that subject area or has the right information.  However, when used appropriately, Wikipedia can be a useful resource. There are a number of ways you can use Wikipedia for your coursework, including:

• Background research – identifying the main players, topics and concepts

Wikipedia can be very useful in providing overviews of subjects. Academic journals can often be difficult to understand as they assume that you already have specialised knowledge of the subject. They use technical terms and complex terminology without explanation. Because of this they are often not the best place to start researching a new topic. Wikipedia articles include a general overview of the subject, provide a useful introduction and define new or important terms, names and concepts, all of which can help you get to grips with your topic.

• References – follow the links to resources you can use

The best Wikipedia articles contain references to their sources.  Some of these sources have little credibility such as self-authored web sites. Other references are to highly credible sources such as peer-reviewed academic journal articles. Even though you shouldn't cite the actual Wikipedia article, check out the sources referenced at the bottom of the page because you can quite often follow the links to primary sources that you can cite in your assignments.

• Use Wikipedia to identify search terms

A good Wikipedia article will identify the main concepts and terms associated with a subject. Use these as search terms when you search resources for academic articles. You will still need to evaluate the credibility of articles that you find (see the evaluating information section), but many will be citable.

An important thing to remember is always make sure you verify what you have read in a Wikipedia article in an academic and credible source.

Have a look at the following video for more information about using Wikipedia.

Crash Course (2019) Using Wikipedia: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #5. 5 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih4dY9i9JKE&t=1s (Accessed 27 April 2023).