Should College Students Cite Wikipedia in their Academic Papers? The short answer is "no." Do they use it. You bet.
Wikipedia Tutorial: a guide for students
When I attended the NEJM Horizons conference last October, I was surprised to hear medical students reporting that their colleagues use Wikipedia as a medical reference text. The wiki platform has a place in medical education but Wikipedia does not require any expert knowledge or credentials verification to contribute.
A Wikipedia article is often in the top 5 of Google search results for many queries and the path of least resistance for most searchers is to focus only on the first page of results. This is not a good search (and research) pattern for future physicians, in my opinion.
References:
Should College Students Cite Wikipedia in their Academic Papers? Amit Agarwal, 2009.
NEJM Horizons Conference to Push Boundaries of Traditional Medical Publishing, Day 1
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