This week is “Mailbag Week” where I answer some of the questions recently asked by my beloved readers, customers, and colleagues.

Q. I am writing a series of articles for a client who wants me to use Wikipedia as a source, referencing specific material on this wiki. I have heard that Wikipedia has some credibility issues; what should I do?

A. Yes, Wikipedia has not been without controversy since launching in 2001. Its sheer size brings the site plenty of attention with some comparing Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Britannica, another popular reference source.

For the past month, I have been a contributing editor on Wikipedia so I know first hand what sometimes takes place when an article is posted, edited, changed, etc. Volunteer human editors, most of whom work anonymously, are the people driving Wikipedia. Naturally, this opens the site up to abuse as anyone with an agenda can get on and make changes or tamper with the material. On the other hand, I have seen where a problem article was pulled or updated quickly when it came to the attention of the community. FYI: avoid articles with no citations or with a posted note disputing its neutrality.

As far as quoting Wikipedia, I am not sure why anyone would want to do that. Sometimes I use Wikipedia as a launching point when I start a writing project: I’ll read what has been written on a topic and then I’ll check out the links to see what references have been cited. It is with these links where I am much more apt to find accurate and relevant sources, but not always. From there, I’ll delve deeper and look around the internet for more information — the higher the quality of the writing project, the more time I’ll spend on scoping out sources, talking to people, and doing what needs to be done to make sure that my article is as accurate and complete as possible.

Oh, by the way, a 2005 study comparing Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Britannica had an interesting conclusion — the study determined that the two reference sources had the same level of accuracy. Go figure.