n of users who aims to share and disseminating information. Being measured from these six hard criteria, Wikipedia is qualified to be a reference source. This essay also provides some studies and data to propose the thesis. This essay has collected evidence to prove that Wikipedia is as good as Britannica in inaccuracies and errors. If Britannica can be referred to, the Wikipedia can also be. Furthermore, Wikipedia is quite objective in taking a stance in relation to controversial issues and it is also abundant in content. In addition, the purpose of contributors to write in Wikipedia is akin to people who want to write a research paper. That is, to create new information and to give the information away to people around the world. It is an information dissemination process. Hence, Wikipedia is of great reference value in preparing and writing a research paper. However, as with superfluous information floating on the Internet, one must adopts a critical viewpoint to determine whether the information is what needed. As many people apprehend that Wikipedia still have a lot to do to improve its authority and inaccuracy issues, the author believes that one need to think critically on the information or the ideas provided on Wikipedia and must be selective on some information related to the given research topic. Also, one should not just rely solely on Wikipedia as his reference source, he must refer to as many as reference resources as possible in order to ensure the correctness and the professional degree of his research paper.
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