So many people have written on this, nevertheless, I thought it's important to repeat here specially for those who may read only my blog. Is it alright to quote Wikipedia material as a source when one is writing a book or an article for a journal? No. And these are the reasons:
1. One never knows who all have written the materials of Wikipedia. It could have been written by a Ph.D scholar or by someone with a strong prejudice about the subject matter. Since one does not have sufficient idea whether the material has been written by a person with sufficient expertise or not, it is not trustworthy. Along with this take the fact that the materials can be edited by anyone.
2. When online materials are quoted, it is important to give the date of accessing the materials. With Wikipedia the materials can change many a time in a day itself since it follows a system where anyone can do editing. This is just too unstable and thus leaves no chance to be vetted by scholars.
NB: To get the broad overview of the subject, Wikipedia provides a good platform. But to be quoted as an authoritative source for a book/journal, Wikipedia is not an appropriate source, at least for now.
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