by Matt Bird

Created on: June 08, 2009

Wikipedia is a massive repository of information, one far bigger than you could ever fit in any collection of books. (Unless you want a collection that stretches across a library, anyway.) You can find something on virtually anything. Feel free to test that, as well: think of some random subject, hop on Wikipedia, type it in and see what you get. At the very least you're likely to come across a stub, if not more.

Sounds like a researcher's dream come true - and in some ways, it is. But hold your horses before you go charging in and create a list of citations with nothing but Wikipedia in it, as you'll immediately be discredited as a laughingstock, whether you're a professional writer or just a college student. Useful though it may be Wikipedia isn't considered a reliable source for research, and though I'd argue that such isnt always the case the nay-sayers have some good points.

Why? Primarily because anybody can edit Wikipedia. Any half wit with an Internet connection can jump on and start editing articles with wild abandon, and though there's a fairly ferocious editing community on most pages there are also lots of unprotected articles out there. More, though you can usually immediately tell if somebody has fraudulently edited Wikipedia, it's not always the case: be prepared for biased slants, slight tweaking of fact and little, undetectable mistakes.

So does that mean Wikipedia is useless for research? Not at all. In fact I generally use Wikipedia as my first go-to when researching a topic. I just make sure I head to other sources soon after finishing with Wikipedia, to the point that, though it may have everything I need, it's never on my list of citations.

Here are a few tips for using Wikipedia to aid in your research, whatever it may be.

- Wikipedia is great for introducing you to a topic. If you know absolutely nothing about, say, an assignment you've been given, you can use Wikipedia to get your mind up to speed on some of the basics. They may not all be completely true, but you'll still get a general overview of what's involved with the topic.

- The best Wikipedia articles include long lists of citations, and best among them are references to books. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and write down any books you see. You can then head out to a library and try to track down said books - and even if you don't, you can find titles that are similar to the ones you've been looking for. And since you've already been reading up on the topic on Wikipedia, these books won't be as utterly impenetrable as they might have been had you started reading from square one.

- These citations are also useful for websites which can reinforce what Wikipedia has to say, though be advised that other websites aren't necessarily of use, either. Lean towards .edu or .gov sites if you can.

- Wikipedia is also quite good for statistics. I've found that many articles make extensive use of statistical data, and will refer you back to their source - a source that would otherwise be quite difficult to find on its own.

In short, Wikipedia is a springboard. It's a way to get started on, but far from the way to finish, your work. Never take Wikipedia as the end-all be-all of information or your paper will immediately get tossed out by cautious editors.

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