Wikipedia does not publish original research. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than the beliefs or experiences of editors. Even if you are sure something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it.
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Where does the information on Wikipedia come from?
Wikipedia uses MediaWiki software, the open-source program used not only on Wikimedia projects but also on many other third-party websites. The hardware supporting the Wikimedia projects is based on several hundred servers in various hosting centers worldwide.
Is Wikipedia a reliable source of information?
Wikipedia is not a reliable source for citations elsewhere on Wikipedia. Because, as a user-generated source, it can be edited by anyone at any time, any information it contains at a particular time could be vandalism, a work in progress, or just plain wrong.
How often is Wikipedia wrong?
The paper found that Wikipedia’s entries had an overall accuracy rate of 80 percent, whereas the other encyclopedias had an accuracy rate of 95 to 96 percent. A 2010 study assessed the extent to which Wikipedia pages about the history of countries conformed to the site’s policy of verifiability.
Why does Wikipedia have so much information?
Wikipedia, having contributors from many areas of the world, provides its readers with a “world view” that could not be provided simply by few contributors from a limited region. This also serves to eliminate cultural bias in articles. To use an extended metaphor, Wikipedia is very fertile soil for knowledge.
Is Wikipedia a primary source?
Wikipedia is a bad source. While it is a tertiary source, Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source for Wikipedia articles. Tertiary sources can provide a valuable overview of a topic, but often oversimplify complex material. It is usually better to cite the secondary or primary literature directly.
How does Steven Pruitt make money?
As of 2017, Pruitt is a contractor for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he works with records and information and prefers to work on paper.
Why Wikipedia is a bad source?
Why isn’t Wikipedia a reliable source? Wikipedia is not a reliable source because it allows multiple users to edit, and it is not safe to assume that the facts presented there have been checked before publishing them. Who writes the Wikipedia pages? Anyone is allowed to edit the content of any Wikipedia page.
How is Wikipedia moderated?
It does not have “moderators”, but it does have administrators. Unlike most companies, Wikipedia has a very flat hierarchy for the vast majority of decision making, everyone is involved in its running, and no one has more than one vote on its various debates.
What is a better source than Wikipedia?
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
(www.britannica.com) In terms of traditional encyclopedias, this is Wikipedia’s main rival. It contains every current volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, with easy-to-use search tools.
Can you trust Wikipedia?
While some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish. Also, since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any time, articles may be prone to errors, including vandalism, so Wikipedia is not a reliable source. So please do not use Wikipedia to make critical decisions.
Is there an alternative to Wikipedia?
Though it’s been overshadowed by Wikipedia’s crowd-sourced approach in recent years, Encyclopedia Britannica is still one of the most respected reference works in the world. Scholarpedia uses the same software as Wikipedia, MediaWiki, but keeps the philosophy of a more traditional encyclopedia.
Is Wikipedia editable by anyone?
Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning anyone can edit nearly any page and improve articles immediately. You do not need to register to do this, and anyone who has edited is known as a Wikipedian or editor. Small edits add up, and every editor can be proud to have made Wikipedia better for all.
Why Wikipedia is a good source?
It is Wikipedia’s Featured Articles that are especially trustworthy in contrast to normal or even good articles, as they have to pass even harder “tests” to become featured, as they are to be “the best of Wikipedia”, “a model for other articles”, and thus, a much more reliable source than average articles.
Why is Wikipedia always first on Google?
When it comes to the content that Wikipedia contains, one of the many reasons that it does so well is because it has other websites constantly referring traffic back to the encyclopedia.This gives Wikipedia an advantage against sites that are not easy to navigate and a higher ranking with Google.
How accurate is Wikipedia 2021?
Overall, Wikipedia’s accuracy rate was 80 percent compared with 95-96 percent accuracy within the other sources.”
Does Wikipedia count as a secondary source?
Tertiary sources are publications such as encyclopedias and other compendia that summarize primary and secondary sources. Wikipedia is considered to be a tertiary source. Many introductory undergraduate-level textbooks are regarded as tertiary sources because they sum up multiple secondary sources.
Is Wikipedia a search engine?
In general, external search engines are faster than a Wikipedia search. However, because the search engine’s cache is based on when the site was indexed, the search may not return newly created pages.Google tends to include Wikipedia as part of its normal search, and it comes up fairly accurately. Yahoo!
What type of source is Wikipedia?
Some Wikipedia articles are directly adapted from peer reviewed academic papers. In such cases the source page may be treated as any other source, but not the Wikipedia page.
Do Wikipedia editors get paid?
Wikipedia. These editors are not paid by Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. They are understood to be contributing on behalf of a third party such as an employer or client. At its heart, paid editing seems at odds with the open user-led model of volunteer collaboration that Wikipedia employs and is famous for.
How does Wikipedia get updated so fast?
Some parts of the Wikipedia are edited by bots. They are special scripts that can do extensive but unintelligent editing, such as updating links to other language wiki pages automatically. This kind of information rich updates are created by real users.