Although professors at other universities recently banned students from using Wikipedia as a source of research, professors at Penn State said they do not often see students citing it.

Wikipedia is "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit," according to wikipedia.org.

In February, the history department of Middlebury College in Vermont issued a statement banning students from using Wikipedia as a source.

"Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source," the ban said.

Wikipedia has publicly acknowledged its shortcomings as a research tool.

"Essentially, we agreed that it was a reasonable policy," Sandra Ordonez, communication manager of Wikimedia, said of bans that prevent students from citing Wikipedia. "It is not a primary source, and it is not an authoritative source."

In a press release, Wikipedia said it is "a 'wiki' -- a collaborative, open-source medium -- thus, articles are never complete, and can be edited by nearly anyone with access to the web."

Professors at Penn State agreed that students should not cite Wikipedia. "I think it should be banned as a citation," said On-cho Ng, associate professor of history and religious studies.

He said although he is not opposed to sharing information on the Web, Penn State offers more reliable sources for research.

Though Ross Wolfe (senior-history) said he browses Wikipedia every two or three days, he said he would never use it as a source.

"It's subject to change and editing. The information that I cite might not be there in the future," Wolfe said.

Katie Hamilton (graduate-crime, law and justice), who is a teaching assistant for a class, said there are other online sources that are even less reliable than Wikipedia.

"One student cited about.com," she said. "I would rather them cite Wikipedia over that."

Shelley White (senior-English) said she does not typically use Wikipedia but used it at her teacher's request to find an overview of Africa for her Earth 105 class.

"The professor said it was actually a good article. She wanted us to read it," she said.

Paul Haspel, English lecturer, said he has not experienced any problems concerning Wikipedia. However, he said it is not as reliable as other sources since it uses "wiki" technology. "If a student asked to cite Wikipedia, I would want them to find another site with which to compare it," Haspel said.

Wikipedia has recently been making efforts to correct errors on the site. " ... We are now dedicating much more energy to improving the quality of articles, and combating vandals, spammers, and marketers - who are a real threat to the integrity of our projects," the company said in a press release.