Question

How do you know whether you can trust Wikipedia or another online resource?

Answer 1

Never trust wikipedia

Answer 2

Wikipedia articles can be edited by anyone at any time and the vetting process is slow at best and is performed by individuals whose qualifications are unknown. Therefore, articles from Wikipedia should be considered unreliable. Never cite it in an academic paper.

Answer 3

Well... While Wikipedia is considered as unreliable and not trustworthy it has been proven various times to be just as factual as any other encyclopedia. I was just reading an article on that statistically Wikipedia is just as reliable as other sources. I wouldn't cite it for a paper, though.

Answer 4

To really answer the question... if you want to find out if a source is reliable look for a few things
1. Spelling: if the spelling is bad then you can assume that it is not very accurate
2. Look at more than one site: often if more than one sites (cheek at least 3 to be safe) have the same information chances are that its fairly accurate

Answer 5

@Crimson I find many articles to be accurate in Wikipedia, however, for the reasons that I stated, you can not cite it in an academic paper. That said, it is a very good starting place for research. I used it often when I was in college to get pointed in the right direction for more reliable sources.

The good Wikipedia articles all have links to sources that you can cross reference. Some of these sources are quite usable in an academic paper. So if you are researching using Wikipedia and find information that you want to use, try tracking down where they got the information from. Often it is from a credible source, but be sure it is before using it in your paper. Not all sources used for Wikipedia articles are worthy of academic citation, which is another reason you should not cite Wikipedia articles.