[Air-L] using wikipedia articles in academic paper

[Christophe Prieur]

Quite agree with Ismael, a reference to Wikipedia sounds to me like a  
footnote saying 'hey dude, look at the dictionary', if not just 'rtfm'.
If you think an explanation is needed for some technical term, put it  
either in a few words or in a whole section, but if you choose not to,  
then leave it to the grown-up reader to look for further information.

My humble opinion of course but i guess you don't want to annoy those  
pedantic readers (including reviewers) that share it :)

--	Christophe.



Le 7 mai 09 à 09:50, Ismael Peña-López a écrit :

> Dear Stefano,
>
> Had I been the reviewer, I would have made the same observation.
>
> It's not that I don't like Wikipedia: it's that I don't find it  
> appropriate
> to cite _any_ dictionary and/or encyclopaedia at all in any kind of  
> essay,
> including K-12.
>
> And it's not that I take for granted that my potential audience  
> might be
> aware of all the concepts, but I do take for granted that they are  
> aware of
> the existence of dictionaries or handbooks (I neither include  
> references to
> e.g. "Handbook of SPSS usage") they will use in case they don't  
> understand a
> word or (say) "basic" concept.
>
> In my opinion, it is opposite (as you already point at) to citing  
> specific
> authors, or even specific methodologies developed by specific authors
> (following the former example I _would_ cite a statistical methodology
> developed and explained in a technical paper - but not on a generic
> handbook).
>
> Put short, I personally find it annoying to find papers that begin  
> as e.g.
> "Engagment, as it is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, deals
> with...". I'd rather have the main authors that have developed the  
> term and
> have it defined by their own quotes.
>
> Of course, strictly personal opinion :)
>
> All the best,
>
> Ismael Peña-López
> ICTlogy.net
>
> Public Policies for Development and ICT4D
> School of Law and Political Science
> Open University of Catalonia
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