Wikipedia.org claims to have the best articles on the Internet about obscure subjects, like exploding whales. That may be all Wikipedia is viable for, some universities say.

The Web site, described as the free online encyclopedia anyone can edit, came under scrutiny last month after the history department at Middlebury College in Vermont enacted a policy banning its use as a source for papers.

Six students in a Japanese history class wrote on a test that Jesuits supported the Shimabara Rebellion. The problem? That didn’t happen.

Middlebury said that while the site is a good source to gather small bits of information to begin research, the information is flawed in some cases.

While Loyola various departments of study have not uniformly restricted students from citing Wikipedia, several professors have enacted personal policies against the encyclopedia.

John Sebastian, an assistant English professor, has prohibited his students from citing Wikipedia in their papers.

“I do not want to discourage students from using Wikipedia, but rather encourage them to use better and more reputable sites,” Sebastian said. “My main concern is the definition of the site itself as a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit without posting their credentials.

“I have found many of their entries on medieval studies, which is my field of specialization, to be simply wrong and not very good,” he said.

Sebastian, however, is not alone in his request that students use traditional sources for research. Several Loyola professors from various departments have also banned the site.

“I have told my students not to use Wikipedia as a source for a research paper. I consider it an un-refereed source of information,” said Bernard Cook, a history professor at Loyola for 39 years.

“Students should never cite sources that do not attribute authors,” Cook said, adding his main concern involves plagiarism from online sources.

For all the problems that have been found with the Web site recently, however, there is a silver lining, some faculty said.

“There are strengths and weaknesses to every kind of Web site,” said English professor Kate Adams. “Wikipedia makes it easier for me to teach that no site can be trusted.”

With the temptation to use online sources available to students, professors encourage students to use resources on campus, particularly the Writing Across the Curriculum laboratory.

Ben Sines, English writing freshman and WAC lab tutor, edits compositions in the lab and helps students improve their writing and research skills.

“We are here to prevent students from citing sources incorrectly as well as helping them with their material, because sometimes they can be completely in the dark when it comes to research papers.”

Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has become one of the largest and most popular reference Web sites on the Internet. The site was formed as an initiative to construct a universal perspective of historical events. Its namesake is a combination of the words wiki, a type of collaborative Web site, and encyclopedia. Wikipedia has created its own entry that replies to common objections to address its mission and critics.

To cite Wikipedia, “We are working together on statements of what is known, what constitutes free human knowledge, about various subjects … We assume that the world is full of reasonable people and that collectively they can arrive eventually at a reasonable conclusion, despite the worst efforts of a very few wreckers. It’s something akin to optimism.”

Kathy Martinez can be reached at [email protected].