article

Methodological issues in measuring citations in Wikipedia: a case study in Library and Information Science

Authors:

Aida Pooladian,

Ángel BorregoAuthors Info & Claims

Scientometrics, Volume 113, Issue 1

Pages 455 - 464

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2474-z

Published: 01 October 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Wikipedia citations have been suggested as a metric that partially captures the impact of research, providing an indication of the transfer of scholarly output to a wider audience beyond the academic community. In this article, we explore the coverage of Library and Information Science literature published between 2001 and 2010 in Wikipedia, paying special attention to the methodological issues involved in counting Wikipedia citations. The results reveal severe limitations in the use of Wikipedia citations for research evaluation. Lack of standardization and incompleteness of Wikipedia references make it difficult to retrieve them. The number of Wikipedia citations is very low, with less than 3% of articles in the sample having been cited. A significant number of references are cited in biographical entries about the authors of the articles, resulting in a phenomenon of accumulated advantage, which is similar to the Matthew effect. Nearly one-third of the Wikipedia citations link to an open access source, although this result is probably an underestimate of open access availability, given the incompleteness of Wikipedia citations.

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Cited By

Schmidt MKircheis WSimons APotthast MStein B(2023)A diachronic perspective on citation latency in Wikipedia articles on CRISPR/Cas-9: an exploratory case studyScientometrics10.1007/s11192-023-04703-8128:6(3649-3673)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-023-04703-8
Kikkawa JTakaku MYoshikane F(2023)Time Lag Analysis of Adding Scholarly References to English WikipediaInformation for a Better World: Normality, Virtuality, Physicality, Inclusivity10.1007/978-3-031-28032-0_33(425-438)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-28032-0_33
Wang MZhang JChen GChai K(2019)Examining the influence of open access on journals' citation obsolescence by modeling the actual citation processScientometrics10.1007/s11192-019-03085-0119:3(1621-1641)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-019-03085-0

Methodological issues in measuring citations in Wikipedia: a case study in Library and Information Science
1. Information systems

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cover image Scientometrics

Scientometrics Volume 113, Issue 1

October 2017

651 pages

ISSN:0138-9130

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Copyright © Copyright © 2017 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.

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Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

Publication History

Published: 01 October 2017

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Cited By

Schmidt MKircheis WSimons APotthast MStein B(2023)A diachronic perspective on citation latency in Wikipedia articles on CRISPR/Cas-9: an exploratory case studyScientometrics10.1007/s11192-023-04703-8128:6(3649-3673)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-023-04703-8
Kikkawa JTakaku MYoshikane F(2023)Time Lag Analysis of Adding Scholarly References to English WikipediaInformation for a Better World: Normality, Virtuality, Physicality, Inclusivity10.1007/978-3-031-28032-0_33(425-438)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-28032-0_33
Wang MZhang JChen GChai K(2019)Examining the influence of open access on journals' citation obsolescence by modeling the actual citation processScientometrics10.1007/s11192-019-03085-0119:3(1621-1641)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-019-03085-0

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