Is Wikipedia reliable?

[Lizzy F.]

Quote:Maybe not a textbook, but you can find actual reliable information online. If I want to know something about a subject related to psychology, the first place I'd probably look is on the American Psychological Association's website, and read articles there, rather than go to Wikipedia or any other encyclopedia. If I want to know something about a sociological subject, I'd look for articles online written by a sociologist. There is still always error in anything, but some things are just likely to be far more reliable than others.

But not all professional articles are free. Your solution still costs $$. To assume that there's free, professionally-written articles about every topic under the sun is a bit far-fetched.

Quote:and they sat there mostly unused because they weren't that great of a source for information. On a lot of topics they only had a paragraph or two of information.

That doesn't make them bad. Encyclopedias are not supposed to be exhaustive articles. It's just an introduction to a topic, which is why many encyclopedias will have extended reference lists so you can find more in-depth books on the topic if you want to read more.