Wikipedia and Psychology: Coverage of Concepts and Its Use by Undergraduate Students

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is a frequently referred- to source of information for Internet users. A series of 3 studies examined Wikipedia's coverage of psychology-related concepts, examined how accessible Wikipedia's psychology content is when using Internet search engines, and des...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Teaching of psychology 2008-04, Vol.35 (2), p.81-85
Main Author: Schweitzer, N. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to Information
Computer Uses in Education
Encyclopedias
Internet
Psychology
Reference Materials
Search Engines
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is a frequently referred- to source of information for Internet users. A series of 3 studies examined Wikipedia's coverage of psychology-related concepts, examined how accessible Wikipedia's psychology content is when using Internet search engines, and described how both first-year and senior undergraduates use Wikipedia. The results demonstrated that Wikipedia's coverage of psychological topics was comprehensive and prominently displayed on the major search engines. In addition, a majority of undergraduate students reported referring to Wikipedia for both personal and school-related activities; however, few students reported using Wikipedia as a formal reference in academic work.
ISSN:0098-6283
1532-8023
DOI:10.1080/00986280802004594