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Professional Psychology: Debating Chamber · Psychology Journals · Psychologists
What are the general limitations of Wikipedia?[]
Wikipedia (WP) is an encyclopedia for the general and educated reader. While the articles become extremely detailed and sophisticated they still do not qualify as acceptable reference material for academic work. Academics do not generally quote from Encyclopedia Britannica for the same reason.
Academic and professional users require a seperate system of information, one that is quality controlled by peer review and integrated more fully into the existing literature knowledge structure, that of academic books and journals.
What are the specific limitations of WP[]
- Level of detail - Generally article in WP only go to a limited level of detail. Academics and professionals, for example, have established a substantial literature on many aspects of clinical depression which are beyond the scope of WP articles
- Level of referencing - Generally speaking the level of referencing on WP is insufficient for academic purposes. It may be the case that in time they will develop detailed articles on all the areas in clinical depression but this is probably unlikely, and so the level of referencing will remain limited