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Historians carry out original research, often using primary sources. Historians often have a PhD or advanced academic training in historiography, but may have an advanced degree in a related social science field or a domain specific field; other scholars and reliable sources will typically use the descriptive label historian to refer to an historian.
However, although Wikipedia articles are tertiary sources, Wikipedia employs no systematic mechanism for fact-checking or accuracy. Thus, Wikipedia articles (and Wikipedia mirrors) in themselves are not reliable sources for any purpose (except as sources on themselves per WP:SELFSOURCE). Primary sources are often difficult to use appropriately.
The following presents a non-exhaustive list of sources whose reliability and use on Wikipedia are frequently discussed. This list summarizes prior consensus and consolidates links to the most in-depth and recent discussions from the reliable sources noticeboard and elsewhere on Wikipedia.
A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sources [6] that does not provide additional interpretations or analysis of the sources. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Some tertiary sources can be used as an aid to find key (seminal) sources, key terms, general common knowledge [ 9 ] and established mainstream ...
A known example is the Sacha Baron Cohen article, where false information added in Wikipedia was apparently used by two newspapers, leading to it being treated as reliable in Wikipedia. [124] [better source needed] This process of creating reliable sources for false facts has been termed "citogenesis" by xkcd webcomic artist Randall Munroe.
Wikipedia, like many institutions, has its own lexicon. Wikipedia does not use these terms exactly like academics use them. There are at least two ways in which the term secondary source is used on Wikipedia. This page deals primarily with the classification of reliable sources in terms of article content.
You should always try to use the best possible source, particularly when writing about living people. These are general guidelines, but the topic of reliable sources is a complicated one, and is impossible to fully cover here. You can find more information at Wikipedia:Verifiability and at Wikipedia:Reliable sources. There is also a list of ...
A secondary source summarizes one or more primary or secondary sources. In general, Wikipedia articles should rely on reliable secondary sources. A tertiary source is usually a document that summarizes primary, secondary and other tertiary sources. Encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, are tertiary sources.