Which sites are worth a few bucks?

Alex · 12-30-2008, 12:13 AM

The fact that Wikipedia is home to vast amounts of plagiarism is not a good thing, but from a research point of view that doesn't necessarily make it wrong.

One of the key ways I use Wikipedia is that unlike almost anything else on the internet it regularly provides citations to scholarly resources. No, I don't rely on it to exclusivity but it does frequently provide a high level overview and an entry point into deeper research and that is a good thing. After all, that is all the Encyclopeadia Brittanica is, as well (though admittedly more rigorously peer reviewed). And unlike the EB you don't have to rely on annual update volumes that nobody ever remembers to check to learn that the information in your edition has been completely superseded.

12-30-2008, 12:13 AM	#8
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	The fact that Wikipedia is home to vast amounts of plagiarism is not a good thing, but from a research point of view that doesn't necessarily make it wrong. One of the key ways I use Wikipedia is that unlike almost anything else on the internet it regularly provides citations to scholarly resources. No, I don't rely on it to exclusivity but it does frequently provide a high level overview and an entry point into deeper research and that is a good thing. After all, that is all the Encyclopeadia Brittanica is, as well (though admittedly more rigorously peer reviewed). And unlike the EB you don't have to rely on annual update volumes that nobody ever remembers to check to learn that the information in your edition has been completely superseded.
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