No, the source is completely unreliable and inaccurate with regard to academic standard. Now, for the lay man it can be helpful for someone who does not depend on factual information, HOWEVER for anyone doing any kind of academic research it is just about the worst source you can use next to geocities home pages or myspace blogs.
I actually had someone tell me that the reason i should use it is because its the only option other than doing your own original research. riiiiiiight. This moron assumes that wikipedia participates in original research, of course, not the case. All of the information found on wikipedia can be confirmed or denied by outside academically credible source.
My question from day one has always been, If you have to cross reference wikipedia to be sure of its accuracy, why not skip the middleman and go directly to the source of wikipedia's information, the academic source, without having to worry about tom dick or harry embelishing their own thoughts as fact?
There is a severe price to pay for this so-called convienence, stupidity