[Air-L] using wikipedia articles in academic paper

[Alex Halavais]

Not this conversation again :).

I would no sooner approve of the use of Wikipedia as a citation than I
would of Encyclopedia Britannica or (as noted above) the OED. All  of
these are repositories of common knowledge and do not *need* to be
cited. It's assumed that if you do not know the meaning of a technical
term, and if the author has not taken the time to parenthetically
define it, it can be found in a common reference.

The referees questioning your use of Wikipedia as a source for
information on Kuso were right to do so. Original research is
explicitly forbidden on Wikipedia--all material must be cited to
credible sources. If the article does not (and a cursory glance
suggests that it is poorly cited) it serves as a fairly poor Wikipedia
article.

Citing Wikipedia in informal discussions is fine, and so I will here
:). The following is from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citing_Wikipedia

"""
As with any source, especially one of unknown authorship, you should
be wary and independently verify the accuracy of Wikipedia information
if possible. For many purposes, but particularly in academia,
Wikipedia may not be an acceptable source; indeed, some professors and
teachers may reject Wikipedia-sourced material completely. This is
especially true when it is used uncorroborated.

We advise special caution when using Wikipedia as a source for
research projects. Normal academic usage of Wikipedia and other
encyclopedias is for getting the general facts of a problem and to
gather keywords, references and bibliographical pointers, but not as a
source in itself. Remember that Wikipedia is a wiki, which means that
anyone in the world can edit an article, deleting accurate information
or adding false information, which the reader may not recognize.
"""

As a referee, I would be extremely suspicious of any citation of
Wikipedia that used it as secondary, and not primary, material.

That said, I lurve Wikipedia, and find it to be an outstanding way of
getting at primary references. I recommend it to students as a great
way of finding out about the world, and coming quickly to grips with a
new concept. Although it does poorly in the case of kuso, it does well
in other areas as a quick search engine for relevant references. But
past grade school: no citations of encyclopedias.

(In the case of kuso, I would turn to Chinese-speaking colleagues for
translations of source material, since there appears to be a good
published literature on kuso games in Taiwan.)

- Alex



-- 
--
//
// This email is
// [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded.
// [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing.
//
// Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur
// http://alex.halavais.net
//