The Fool Wiki

Citing Wikipedia: Frequently Asked Questions

I can't find any citable sentences. Where are they?

This is a beta release. We only have a few thousand articles processed. But we're in the process of buying more servers, so soon we'll have all of Wikipedia done. For now, check out the examples on the left hand side of the page at referencing Wikipedia.

How did you do it? If you did it manually, how can you do all of Wikipedia?

The Full Wiki is the result of over 5,000 hours of programming work. None of it is done manually. In fact, because there's so much information to search, it's one of those tasks that can't really be done by hand. So yes, it's automatic, so we'll have no problem doing all of Wikipedia.

Are you only going to do Wikipedia?

No! Wikipedia is just the beginning. We'll do any kind of reference material that needs launching from.

Aren't you making it too easy for students?

No. We just provide relevant sources for students to investigate further. We don't advise they simply copy it. Wikipedia often suffers from a lack of citations so we're trying to rectify that.

I want to cite in X format

Chances are, we have that covered. If you scroll down until you see "Citation style: APA MLA MHRA CSE AMA Chicago Bluebook Bluebook/JOLT", select the style you want and then all you'll see citations in that style.

Why do I need you? Can't I just cite Wikipedia?

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, recommends in general that citing it is fine at elementary school level. But in high school and above, you should be going back to primary sources, like what we provide. Ask your teacher if in doubt.

Some of your sources don't look credible to me

By all means, we encourage you to verify for yourself whether the sources are right for you. That's why we link out to them.

The yellow notes are jumping around a bit on my browser

Yes we're aware of this. To be honest, we're better at sophisticated learning algorithms and text processing than we are at attractive interfaces, but we're working on it.

I have a question not covered here

Then please drop us a line!
http://www.thefoolwiki.org/Citable_FAQ
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