A comparative study of academic and Wikipedia ranking (original) (raw)

Are Wikipedia Citations Important Evidence of the Impact of Scholarly Articles and Books

Individual academics and research evaluators often need to assess the value of published research. Whilst citation counts are a recognised indicator of scholarly impact, alternative data is needed to provide evidence of other types of impact, including within education and wider society. Wikipedia is a logical choice for both of these because the role of a general encyclopaedia is to be an understandable repository of facts about a diverse array of topics and hence it may cite research to support its claims. To test whether Wikipedia could provide new evidence about the impact of scholarly research, this article counted citations to 302,328 articles and 18,735 monographs in English indexed by Scopus in the period 2005 to 2012. The results show that citations from Wikipedia to articles are too rare for most research evaluation purposes, with only 5% of articles being cited in all fields. In contrast, a third of monographs have at least one citation from Wikipedia, with the most in the arts and humanities. Hence, Wikipedia citations can provide extra impact evidence for academic monographs. Nevertheless, the results may be relatively easily manipulated and so Wikipedia is not recommended for evaluations affecting stakeholder interests.

A Study of Citations to Wikipedia in Scholarly Publications

The debate on using Wikipedia as a credible academic information resource is dynamic and controversial. This study used the Web of Science (WoS) database and its "Cited Reference" and "Analyze Results" tools to identify and examine trends in the use of Wikipedia citations in scholarly, peer-reviewed publications for the years from 2002 to 2015. Results indicate that the use of Wikipedia citations in peer-reviewed journals has been increasing since 2002. Given that Wikipedia is considered a nonauthoritative source, it might be assumed that this resource is frequently being cited in open access (OA) journals, which are sometimes considered less rigorous when it comes to publication standards. Alternatively, it might be assumed that Wikipedia is being used by scholars from lesser-quality institutions or from developing countries, where access to authoritative information resources might be limited. This study examines these assumptions and describes the disciplines, research fields, and types of journals that are accepting Wikipedia as an authoritative reference source, thereby increasing its credibility. This research is intended to fuel informed debate on the issue, which will contribute to improvement in scholarly communication.

Wikipedia popularity from a citation analysis point of view

Webology, 2009

This study aims to provide an overview of the citation rate of Wikipedia since its launch in 2004. It is worth noting that since its inception Wikipedia, the free international multi-lingual encyclopedia, has been subject to criticism. Wikipedia as a popular web resource appears in response to every keyword search on Google. One way to test the popularity of a web resource is to use citation analysis method to predict to what extend it is cited by scientific papers. This study tries to identify and quantify the number of citations to Wikipedia in the papers indexed by the Web of Science, studying the citation behavior of authors who have published papers in journals indexed by this database. The significance of Wikipedia from a citation analysis point of view goes well beyond open access and enhanced opportunities for citation.

Impact of Wikipedia on citation trends

It has been suggested that the "visibility" of an article influences its citation count. More specifically, it is believed that the social media can influence article citations. In the present work, we tested the hypothesis that inclusion of scholarly references in Wikipedia affects the citation trends. Although citation counts generally increase during time, the citation "propensity" does not increase after inclusion of a reference in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Citation Count: A Case Study of Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology during 2005 -2013

First International Conference Science and Technology Metrics (STMet 2019), Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2019

Wikipedia is a free website that anyone can freely read and edit by the login. In addition, it has been widely referred by students, researchers and other academic groups. As, many journals and academics argue that, Wikipedia is not trusty source of information in scientific publication. However, it has been increasingly used in academic and scientific publications. Furthermore, citing to Wikipedia in academic articles has dramatically changed in recent past years. The current study is to examine the cited papers in Wikipedia published in American Society for Information Science journal from 2005 to 2013 year. In this study, the first step was done by extracting bibliographical data from Scopus database. In order to identify cited paper in Wikipedia, the second step done by using Webometric Analyst Software. The data were exported via Bing Application Programming Interface (API) key using Webometric Analyst Software. The study found a total 139 publications were cited in Wikipedia out of 1485 publications. The most prolific authors were Hjørland, B. from The Royal School of Library and Information Science, Birketinget, Denmark and Thelwall, M . from Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton with 5 papers were cited in Wikipedia. Furthermore, the study reviewed Wikipedia cited articles and find out why, these articles have been cited in Wikipedia based on certain parameters such open access status, highly cited papers and highly cited authors (H-index and Citations). Further study noted that, both open access and closed access articles were cited in Wikipedia and majority of the cited articles in Wikipedia were closed access type. Similarly, very less number of highly cited papers were cited in Wikipedia. Significantly, majority of Wikipedia cited papers wrote by highly experienced authors. The study recommended that Wikipedia can be used in academic literature since many peer-review journal articles have been cited in Wikipedia.

Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals' Impact by Wikipedia Citations

Social Science Computer Review, 2021

The aim of the study was to explore the impact of peer-reviewed psychology journals on Wikipedia articles. We are presenting a rank of academic journals classified as pertaining to psychology, most cited on Wikipedia, as well as a rank of general-themed academic journals that were most frequently referenced in Wikipedia entries related to psychology. We then compare the list to journals that are considered most prestigious according to the SciMago journal rank score. Additionally, we describe the time trajectories of the knowledge transfer from the moment of the publication of an article to its citation in Wikipedia. We propose that the citation rate on Wikipedia, next to the traditional citation index, may be a good indicator of the work's impact in the field of psychology. Keywords psychology journals citations, Wikipedia, psychology in online media, publication impact Journal quality and rankings have been a topic of recurring debates in psychology research (Mayor, 2010; Paulus et al., 2018).

Mapping the backbone of the Humanities through the eyes of Wikipedia

Journal of Informetrics, 2019

The present study aims to establish a valid method by which to apply the theory of co-citations to Wikipedia article references and, subsequently, to map these relationships between scientific papers. This theory, originally applied to scientific literature, will be transferred to the digital environment of collective knowledge generation. To this end, a dataset containing Wikipedia references collected from Altmetric and Scopus' Journal Metrics journals has been used. The articles have been categorized according to the disciplines and specialties established in the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC). They have also been grouped by journal of publication. A set of articles in the Humanities, comprising 25 555 Wikipedia articles with 41 655 references to 32 245 resources, has been selected. Finally, a descriptive statistical study has been conducted and co-citations have been mapped using networks and indicators of degree and betweenness centrality.

Wikipedia and academic peer review: Wikipedia as a recognised medium for scholarly publication?

Online Information Review, 2008

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to engage in a thought experiment, exploring the use of Wikipedia or similar content-malleable systems for the review and dissemination of academic knowledge. Design/methodology/approach -By looking at other sources, the paper considers the current state of the academic peer-review process, discusses Wikipedia and reflects on dynamic content creation and management applications currently in use in academia. Findings -The traditional peer review process must be updated to match the rapid creation and diffusion of knowledge that characterises the 21st century. The Wikipedia concept is a potential model for more rapid and reliable dissemination of scholarly knowledge. The implications of such a concept would have a dramatic effect on the academic community. Originality/value -This paper promotes a radical idea for changing the methods by which academic knowledge is both constructed and disseminated.

Measuring University Impact: Wikipedia approach

ArXiv, 2020

The impact of Universities on the social, economic and political landscape is one of the key directions in contemporary educational evaluation. In this paper, we discuss the new methodological technique that evaluates the impact of university based on popularity (number of page-views) of their alumni’s pages on Wikipedia. It allows revealing the alumni popularity dynamics and tracking its state. Preliminary analysis shows that the number of page-views is higher for the contemporary persons that prove the perspectives of this approach. Then, universities were ranked based on the methodology and compared to the famous international university rankings ARWU and QS based only on alumni scales: for the top 10 universities, there