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Questions tagged [wikipedia]

Wikipedia is a free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit, and a place of first resort for many people to find knowledge about a vast array of subjects.

89 votes
15 answers
15k views

Why are some professors critical of even casual use of Wikipedia?

Many of the professors and lecturers I come across are very critical of Wikipedia, but they never give proper support for their claims of "Wikipedia is bullshit!". And they threaten "Do not use ...
Jake's user avatar
  • 821
65 votes
11 answers
14k views

Are there instances where citing Wikipedia is allowed?

For example, suppose you're writing an article about triangles, and you want to include a short proof of Pythagoras' theorem, but you can't quite remember how to derive it, so you pop over to: https://...
Jamie Twells's user avatar
48 votes
4 answers
5k views

What are the pros and cons of giving students assignments to write Wikipedia articles?

The Wikimedia Foundation initiated an education program at U.S. universities that in 2010 encouraged government, law, and public policy students from 33 classes at 22 programs to contribute to ...
user2521204's user avatar
  • 1,061
35 votes
5 answers
7k views

Is it problematic to use a Wikipedia article I wrote in my PhD thesis?

I'm working on a specific subject, and I thought that sharing my bibliographical and synthesis work from peer-reviewed journals on Wikipedia could be a good idea. Moreover, there is no Wikipedia entry ...
jrjc's user avatar
  • 471
29 votes
5 answers
2k views

Value of contributions to Wikipedia when applying for academic jobs

The quality of articles in Wikipedia has grown tremendously in the last few years. A "good article" requires a big list of necessities, including coherence, readability, comprehensiveness and credible ...
Bravo's user avatar
  • 23.1k
26 votes
4 answers
6k views

Is it unprofessional to use graphics from Wikipedia in a poster?

Is it an acceptable practice to use simple graphics found on Wikipedia (and hence in Wikimedia Commons) in a conference poster? From the legal point of view, this seems to be fine, as long as the ...
Jakub Konieczny's user avatar
24 votes
5 answers
4k views

Is it ethical for a student to edit the Wikipedia page of his advisor?

I have seen quite a few students editing the Wikipedia page of their advisors. I wonder what the view of the academic community are on this. There might be some conflict of interest since promoting ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
23 votes
7 answers
8k views

How should I cite something learned second-hand (eg, from Wikipedia) when I haven't seen the primary source?

I want to cite something that I have learned from a Wikipedia page. However, I'm loathe to cite Wikipedia because of the perception of it by my tutors, so I try to cite the original source. What ...
James's user avatar
  • 588
17 votes
2 answers
4k views

Should I include a reference for an image that is released into the public domain?

I am writing my thesis and came across an image on Wikipedia that I would like to use. The licensing on this image is: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain....
Gerhard Burger's user avatar
13 votes
7 answers
8k views

Is it advisable to use Wikipedia for note-making?

Some people summarize the content of a lecture to deepen their understanding, but I am thinking about using Wikipedia instead. Specifically, I mean finding the Wikipedia article (in my primary, non-...
user46812's user avatar
  • 173
13 votes
7 answers
2k views

When is it appropriate to add references to own papers on Wikipedia?

The Wikipedia rules about citing yourself state: Using material you have written or published is allowed within reason, but only if it is relevant, conforms to the content policies, ... and is not ...
bci's user avatar
  • 155
13 votes
4 answers
769 views

Use of Wikipedia images I created myself

I have created several images for Wikipedia and would like to use them for my own poster/talks as well. However I am concerned that my colleagues will assume that I took them from Wikipedia and will ...
Jannick's user avatar
  • 233
12 votes
5 answers
865 views

Publishing a review in a peer-reviewed Wiki vs a traditional journal?

The topic of Wikipedia contribution has come up before, but I am interested in the community's opinion on peer-reviewed wiki publishing (e.g., Scholarpedia). I would like to know if there is any ...
user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is it OK to write Wikipedia articles about your research?

On Wikipedia, people sometimes write articles on their research topic or add their results to existing articles (probably in order to increase their visibility). I make this assumption if the ...
Libavi's user avatar
  • 690
10 votes
1 answer
280 views

Examples of research resources for which Wikipedia is known as being amongst top referrers?

Wikimedia sites – and Wikipedias in particular – direct a lot of traffic to many web resources, including research-related ones. Click stream data is not recorded on the Wikimedia end, ...
Daniel Mietchen's user avatar

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