The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia
coverage of academics
A. Samoilenko, и T. Yasseri. (2013)cite arxiv:1310.8508Comment: To appear in EPJ Data Science. To have the Additional Files and Datasets e-mail the corresponding author.
DOI: 10.1140/epjds20
Аннотация
Activity of modern scholarship creates online footprints galore. Along with
traditional metrics of research quality, such as citation counts, online images
of researchers and institutions increasingly matter in evaluating academic
impact, decisions about grant allocation, and promotion. We examined 400
biographical Wikipedia articles on academics from four scientific fields to
test if being featured in the world's largest online encyclopedia is correlated
with higher academic notability (assessed through citation counts). We found no
statistically significant correlation between Wikipedia articles metrics
(length, number of edits, number of incoming links from other articles, etc.)
and academic notability of the mentioned researchers. We also did not find any
evidence that the scientists with better WP representation are necessarily more
prominent in their fields. In addition, we inspected the Wikipedia coverage of
notable scientists sampled from Thomson Reuters list of "highly cited
researchers". In each of the examined fields, Wikipedia failed in covering
notable scholars properly. Both findings imply that Wikipedia might be
producing an inaccurate image of academics on the front end of science. By
shedding light on how public perception of academic progress is formed, this
study alerts that a subjective element might have been introduced into the
hitherto structured system of academic evaluation.
Описание
[1310.8508] The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia coverage of academics
%0 Generic
%1 samoilenko2013distorted
%A Samoilenko, Anna
%A Yasseri, Taha
%D 2013
%K phd phdproposal scientometric wikipedia
%R 10.1140/epjds20
%T The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia
coverage of academics
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.8508
%X Activity of modern scholarship creates online footprints galore. Along with
traditional metrics of research quality, such as citation counts, online images
of researchers and institutions increasingly matter in evaluating academic
impact, decisions about grant allocation, and promotion. We examined 400
biographical Wikipedia articles on academics from four scientific fields to
test if being featured in the world's largest online encyclopedia is correlated
with higher academic notability (assessed through citation counts). We found no
statistically significant correlation between Wikipedia articles metrics
(length, number of edits, number of incoming links from other articles, etc.)
and academic notability of the mentioned researchers. We also did not find any
evidence that the scientists with better WP representation are necessarily more
prominent in their fields. In addition, we inspected the Wikipedia coverage of
notable scientists sampled from Thomson Reuters list of "highly cited
researchers". In each of the examined fields, Wikipedia failed in covering
notable scholars properly. Both findings imply that Wikipedia might be
producing an inaccurate image of academics on the front end of science. By
shedding light on how public perception of academic progress is formed, this
study alerts that a subjective element might have been introduced into the
hitherto structured system of academic evaluation.
@misc{samoilenko2013distorted,
abstract = {Activity of modern scholarship creates online footprints galore. Along with
traditional metrics of research quality, such as citation counts, online images
of researchers and institutions increasingly matter in evaluating academic
impact, decisions about grant allocation, and promotion. We examined 400
biographical Wikipedia articles on academics from four scientific fields to
test if being featured in the world's largest online encyclopedia is correlated
with higher academic notability (assessed through citation counts). We found no
statistically significant correlation between Wikipedia articles metrics
(length, number of edits, number of incoming links from other articles, etc.)
and academic notability of the mentioned researchers. We also did not find any
evidence that the scientists with better WP representation are necessarily more
prominent in their fields. In addition, we inspected the Wikipedia coverage of
notable scientists sampled from Thomson Reuters list of "highly cited
researchers". In each of the examined fields, Wikipedia failed in covering
notable scholars properly. Both findings imply that Wikipedia might be
producing an inaccurate image of academics on the front end of science. By
shedding light on how public perception of academic progress is formed, this
study alerts that a subjective element might have been introduced into the
hitherto structured system of academic evaluation.},
added-at = {2014-12-01T21:41:21.000+0100},
author = {Samoilenko, Anna and Yasseri, Taha},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/28aa65e24b9f70768544d0d3a3a7d956c/asmelash},
description = {[1310.8508] The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia coverage of academics},
doi = {10.1140/epjds20},
interhash = {407a62e2957b5636e9df9344b3e692d7},
intrahash = {8aa65e24b9f70768544d0d3a3a7d956c},
keywords = {phd phdproposal scientometric wikipedia},
note = {cite arxiv:1310.8508Comment: To appear in EPJ Data Science. To have the Additional Files and Datasets e-mail the corresponding author},
timestamp = {2014-12-01T21:41:21.000+0100},
title = {The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia
coverage of academics},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.8508},
year = 2013
}