does wikipedia.org have an author?

Question

i need it for my work cited

Answer 1

Wikipedia is written by the general public. Anyone can edit a topic that is open for editing. Which is why there can be incorrect information there sometimes.

Answer 2

There is no author. Here is what wikipedia says about citing it:
Frequently, people want to know how to cite Wikipedia in other works.

As with any source, especially those of unknown authorship, you should be wary and independently verify the accuracy of Wikipedia information if possible; see also Caution on academic use of Wikipedia and our General Disclaimer page.
A wiki is an unusual medium, and as such doesn't conform well to the usual book-citation formats. Wiki is not paper, so you will need to use an electronic-citation format instead. The exact format will depend upon the citation guide that you are following, but here are a few general principles to consider:

You should not cite any particular author or authors for a Wikipedia article, in general. Wikipedia is collaboratively written. However, if you do need to find the list of authors of a particular article, you can check the Page history.
Your citation should normally list both the article title and Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, much as you would for an article in a paper publication.
The citation should normally include the full date and time of the article revision you are using, because the page may well change drastically between when you view it and when somebody else following your reference views it. This can be found by clicking the Page history link at the left or top of the page, and looking at the time of the topmost revision (times are in Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, unless you have logged in and entered an offset in your preferences). You can also find the date and time of last revision at the bottom of the page.
Most citation styles will likely require the full article URL. If greater brevity is desired, however, you may optionally include just the Wikipedia URL (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/ for an English article) because the article URL can be inferred from the article title. Note you should click "Permanent link" in the toolbox at the left of this page. This lets the URL include a unique identifier such that you can tie your reference back to the exact version of the article you are referencing; it may or may not be desirable to adopt this approach, depending upon the context of your reference. This lets you show what you saw and will not show any page vandalism (or any other changes, for that matter) made after you accessed the page.
Many citation styles also request the date on which you retrieved the page. However, we suggest omitting this if your style guide allows because the inclusion of the revision date or "Permanent link" (above) makes the retrieval date unimportant.
Each Wikipedia article should normally be a separate citation.
Keep in mind: Wikipedia is not authored solely by accredited researchers (anyone can add to it). For many purposes, it may not be considered an acceptable source. In particular, many schools do not consider Wikipedia an acceptable source for student papers, especially without corroboration, and we ourselves advise caution when using Wikipedia as a source in serious research projects. Still, we believe that Wikipedia generally provides good overviews of most topics that it covers.

Answer 3

Not a single author. Wikipedia is an 'open document' format which anyone can write into.
However, there are processes in place, in which anyone can participate, to deny access to anyone who misuses that privilege by knowingly writing incorrect information or writes nonsense.
There are also processes, which are open to anyone, for managing disputes over facts between authors .
Wikipedia is an effort to tap the most recent and most accurate information available by providing a place for original sources to share knowledge directly.
While Wikipaedia is overwhelmingly accurate with respect to fact, a prudent student should try to verify claims from more then one source.
I don't know about styles for cites for Wikipedia but the most likely place to look is Wikipedia, then a style authority like the Chicago school.

Answer 4

I discovered Ken Kesey as well, actually. I loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The writing was beautiful and the characterization well done. I also read 1984 by George Orwell. It made me very nervous, but I enjoyed reading about Orwell's idea of a possible future. I discovered Anne Bronte. Her writing was simpler than that of her sisters, but I still loved The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I discovered Shannon Hale. Her Books of Bayern aren't the classics I'm used to reading, but I loved the beautiful description and reallistic characters. I also rediscovered Tolkien. I read The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion in seventh grade, and since then had reread parts, but not the whole thing until a couple months ago. I loved them as much as ever, maybe more. This time, I had a stronger appreciation for Sam, who was such a great friend and always had the best lines. ♥M♥

Answer 5

Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has rapidly grown into the largest reference Web site on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, and is written collaboratively by people from all around the world. This Web site is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link (with a few minor exceptions, such as protected articles and the main page).

Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which has created an entire family of wiki projects. On Wikipedia, and its sister projects, you are welcome to be bold and edit articles yourself, contributing knowledge as you see fit in a collaborative way. So, go ahead!

In every article, links will guide you to associated articles, often with additional information. You are welcome to add further information, cross-references, or citations, so long as you do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. You do not need to fear accidentally damaging Wikipedia when you add or improve information, as other Wikipedians are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, if needed, and the Wikipedia encyclopedia software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.

Because Wikipedia is an on-going work to which in principle anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in some very important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation which has been recently added and not yet removed. (See Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is completely up-to-date, with articles on topical events being created or updated within minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.

If you have not done so, we invite you to take a few moments to read What Wikipedia is (and is not) and Researching with Wikipedia, so that you have an understanding of how to use, rely upon, or contribute to Wikipedia as you continue. Further information on key topics can be found below.

Answer 6

Every article has at least one author. In most cases, there are multiple authors - sometimes even hundreds.

There is a help page that tells you how to cite Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia

There is also a tool that will create the citation text for you. Just enter the article name at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Cite

Answer 7

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia collaboratively written by many of its readers. It uses a special type of website, called a wiki, that makes collaboration easy. Lots of people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of changes an hour, all of which are recorded on article histories and recent changes. Inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly, and repeat offenders can be blocked from editing.

Answer 8

heads up: EVERYONE is an author on wikipedia. even you can change information! Depending on what level you are writing at your instructor might look unfavorably on that citation. Simply because information is edited constantly and sometime you may stumble across something before it has been edited and it may be incorrect. Just be sure you know it's true, then you'll be okay. Here, even wikipedia has its own page telling what it is....

Answer 9

I think you may have missed the whole point of wikipedia... and what sort of class are you in where it is a valid source for a paper? Go to the library honey!

Answer 10

No, it belongs to Wikimedia Foundation. For more information, type in "Wikipedia" on Wikipedia.com. =)