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Wikipedia has been the center of a much heated and critical debate in academia pertaining to the relevance, accuracy, and effectiveness of using information found online in academic research, especially in places where information is constantly being created, revised, and deleted by people of various backgrounds, ranging from experts to curious learners.
Wikipedia's scope includes all human knowledge, so we have articles about topics as diverse as science, local history, and popular culture. Volunteers write Wikipedia articles as summaries of the best information on a topic, by summarizing the information found in reliable publications .
Postsecondary science textbooks published by academic publishers are often excellent secondary sources, though they may need to be supplemented with more recent research. If a book has students as its declared target audience, it may not be as complete as a monograph or chapter in a book intended for professionals or postgraduates.
Wikipedia, like many institutions, has its own lexicon. Wikipedia does not use these terms exactly like academics use them. There are at least two ways in which the term secondary source is used on Wikipedia. This page deals primarily with the classification of reliable sources in terms of article content.
Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias, is intended to provide an overview of topics and indicate sources of more extensive and academic information. Many of the general rules of thumb for conducting research apply to Wikipedia, including:
[6] Another definition of research is given by John W. Creswell, who states that "research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue". It consists of three steps: pose a question, collect data to answer the question, and present an answer to the question.
Some video essays feature long, documentary style writing and editing, going deep into the research and history of a particular topic. Others are more akin to an argumentative essay in which a single argument is developed and supported throughout the video.
In the past, research in Wikipedia has built an understanding of how Wikipedia works, [1] why people contribute, [2] how editors interact with each other, [3] what work is discarded and why, [4] how admins are chosen, [5] [6] and how to detect vandalism.