Cite Wikipedia

Including all your sources in a works cited page at the end of a scholarly essay or book helps readers to follow and confirm the validity of your research. You may be asked to cite sources in American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA) or Chicago style. Before using Wikipedia for research, check with your professor or editor to see if they will accept a wiki as a source. Then, make sure you cite Wikipedia properly.

Steps

Citing Wikipedia in APA Style

  1. Start your entry with the Wikipedia entry title. When citing Wikipedia in APA style, first list the name of the article. You do not need to use quotes or italics. Simply write down the article's title followed by a period. For example, if you were citing an article on Jimmy Carter the beginning your citation would look like this: Jimmy Carter.[1]
  2. Include the date, if it is available. In APA style, it's customary to include the date an online source was published or last modified. If you cannot find the date, you would simply write "n.d." in parenthesis after the entry title. After the date, add a period.[1]
    • For most Wikipedia entries, there will not be an applicable date of publication, because it is edited regularly.[1]
    • Returning to our example, your citation would look like this: Jimmy Carter. (n.d.).
  3. Write the words "In Wikipedia." In APA style, it's customary to mention where you found an electronic source. When citing Wikipedia, you would write "In Wikipedia," italicizing the word "Wikipedia." Then add a period.
    • Let's return to our example to illustrate. Our citation should read as follows: Jimmy Carter. (n.d.). In Wikipedia.
  4. Follow with the retrieval date. This is the date you accessed the information. Use the word "Retrieved" and then write the date. In APA style, the date is written "Month Date, Year." For example, if you retrieved your source on the 15th of October in 2015, you would write, "October 15, 2015." Add a comma after the date.[1]
    • To illustrate, here is what our example would look like so far: Jimmy Carter. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 15, 2015,
  5. End with the URL. After the comma at the end of the date, write "from" and then include the full URL of the Wikipedia page. In our example, our final citation would read as follows:

Using MLA Style

  1. Begin with the article title. In MLA style, you would usually begin an online citation with the author's name. As Wikipedia articles do not have authors, you would simply skip to the article name. Put this in quotations and include a period inside the quotations. Using Jimmy Carter as an example again, you would start your article with "Jimmy Carter."[2]
  2. Add the larger source. MLA style dictates you must include the larger source from which you found the article. If you pulled an article from the New York Times, you would write New York Times in italics after the article name. As you pulled your article from Wikipedia, you simply need to write Wikipedia. Follow with a period. Using our example, our citation would not read as follows:
    • "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia.
  3. Include the publisher. In MLA style, you're supposed to include the publisher. When working with online sources, this information is not always known. However, when working with Wikipedia, it's appropriate to write Wikipedia.org as the publisher. Follow with a period. Our example would now read:
    • "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org.
  4. Add the date of publication, if possible. You should usually include the date of an online publication. You may be able to figure out when a Wikipedia article was first published by clicking on the "History" tab on the top of the page. However, as Wikipedia articles update so frequently it can be hard to find the precise publication date. It may be best simply write "n.p." to indicate the publication date is unknown.[2] Using our example, we would now have the following citation:
    • "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.
  5. Write the media format. MLA style requires you to write the media format of a source you're using. This indicates if the source was in the form of a book, journal, web page, and so on. As you're using the Internet, you would write "Web." Follow this with a period.[2] Our source would now read as follows:
    • "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p. Web.
  6. End with the date you found the source. In MLA style, you would end citing a web source by listing the date you accessed the information. In MLA style, you write the date, then the month, then the year. You do not use commas. For example, if you accessed the article on February 2nd, 2016 you would write "2 February 2016."[2] Our final citation would read like this:
    • "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p. Web. 2 February 2016.

Citing Wikipedia in Chicago Style

  1. Begin with the title. In Chicago Style citations, web sources are usually cited very briefly. To begin, you would simply write the title of an article in quotations followed by a comma. For example, "Jimmy Carter,".[3]
  2. Add the access date or the date the site was last modified, if possible. You should include the access date or the date the site was last modified. This is to indicate to readers how up-to-date the information is. As Wikipedia changes so frequently, it makes sense to add the date you accessed the information. In Chicago style, you list the month, then the date, a comma, and then the year. For example, if you accessed the information on March 11, 2015 you would write "March 11, 2015." Include a comma after the date.[3]
    • The example citation would now read: "Jimmy Carter," accessed March 11, 2015,
  3. Add the URL. You should always add the URL after the date. List the full URL and end with a period. This is all the information required for Chicago Style citations when citing Wikipedia.[3]
  4. Try to mention website citations in the text. In Chicago Style, it's generally preferred that you do not cite web citations in your bibliography. Instead, include footnotes or cite the information in the text itself. For example, "According to the Wikipedia page, Jimmy Carter was born in 1924."[3]

Tips

  • Wikipedia articles generally provide a list of citations at the bottom of the page. These citations may be more reliable than Wikipedia itself as a source. Follow the links in Wikipedia articles to verify information is presented accurately in the Wikipedia article.
  • Watch for warnings on the top of a Wikipedia article. Articles are sometimes flagged if they're unreliable or poorly sourced. You should not use these articles in an academic paper.

Warnings

  • Make sure your professor or teacher is okay with Wikipedia as a source before citing it. Many educators consider Wikipedia unreliable and would prefer you not use it in academic writing.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-wikipedia-in-apa-style.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 http://web.stanford.edu/~steener/rhetgaming/handouts/MLAStyle.pdf
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
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