Many professors will tell you not to use, or at the least cite, Wikipedia for college level research. It’s not because Wikipedia is suspect, but because it’s an encyclopedia and should be used for pre-research, not research. Pre-research is the work of gathering background knowledge so then you are prepared to search, find, and understand scholarly books and articles on the topic.
In particular, Wikipedia is great for these pre-research tasks:
- Keywords. What are the words used for this topic? When reading a Wikipedia article, look at the terminology used by the authors on the subject. For example, in looking at the Wikipedia article for flu shots, I see that the term Influenza vaccine is used. Write these words down to use later when searching in library databases and Google Scholar for best results.
- Books and articles. What are some of the important sources on this subject? Look at the references section of a Wikipedia article to see books and articles on the topic. For example, while you might not take at face value something your brother or uncle would say about a topic, you would trust them enough to look up the claim and look into it yourself. For sources behind paywalls on Wikipedia articles, simply copy and paste the source into your library catalog to obtain directly or through interlibrary loan.
- Names and places. Who are the key experts or scholars on this subject? What are the important places related to this subject? Knowing an expert or scholar in an area allows you to look for their writings in library databases and Google Scholar.
