Currently, there is a heated debate in academia concerning the reliability of Wikipedia in college research. Many professors and instructors question the source's credibility, and some discredit Wikipedia entirely. Unfortunately many students do not understand the open-source format of Wikipedia which could allow incomplete or even inaccurate information to be posted. However, it is also true that Wikipedia has easily accessible and often very relevant overview information that may be valuable

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... s a preliminary source for students. Even though some professors and colleges have chosen to ban Wikipedia citations in their student's research, many experts question the wisdom of that policy because the very nature of information gathering has been forever changed by Internet collaborative sources. Instructors at the higher education level will be more effective when they allow the Internet as a source for knowledge and they give up the preconceived notion that Wikipedia and Internet sources are unreliable.