Why and when Wikipedia is cited in journal articles?

Document Type : مقالات پژوهشی

Authors

• fariba tohidinasab ¹
• Hamid r Jamali ²

¹ Kharazami university of Tehran

² UCL university

10.22067/riis.v4i2.22517

Abstract

Pupose: The aim of this research was to identify the motivations of citation to Wikipedia in scientific papers. Also, the number of citation to Wikipedia, location of citation, type of citing papers, subject of citing and cited articles were determined and compared in different subject fields.
Methodology: Statistical population of this research included English articles indexed in Scopus in 2007 and 2012 that had cited to Wikipedia. 602 article were selected using stratified random sampling. Content analysis and bibliometric methods were used to carry out the research.
Findings: Results showed that there were 35 motivations for citing Wikipedia and the most frequent were providing general information and definition, statistics and concepts. The number of citations to Wikipedia had increased from 2007 to 2012. Citations to Wikipedia were often in sections such as introduction, body, materials and methods, and theoretical foundations of papers. Citing papers were often research papers. Computer sciences, internet and chemistry were the most cited subjects. These results show that citation to Wikipedia is often in the introductory sections of papers and is done to provide the facts, definitions, concepts and basic information. There were disciplinary differences in terms of citing Wikipedia.

Keywords

• Citation
• Citation motivations
• Types of Citation
• Reasons of Citation
• Citation Analysis
• Content analysis
• Wikipedi

---

References

Asadi, S., Ghafghazi, S.,and Jamali, H. R. (2013). Motivating and Discouraging Factors for Wikipedians: the Case Study of Persian Wikipedia, Library Review, 62 (4/5), 237 – 252.

Baker, Daniel J. (2010). A jester’s promenade: citation to Wikipedia in Law Reviews, 2002- 2008. A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 7(2).

Giles, J. (2005). Internet encyclopedias go head to head. Nature, 438, 900-901.

Head, A., & Eisenberg, M. (2010). How today’s college students use Wikipedia for course–related research. First Monday, 15 (3). Retrived May 20, 2012 from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2830/247612

Huggett, Sara (2012). The influence of free encyclopedias on science. Research Trends, 7- 10. Retrived May 20, 2012 from http://www.researchtrensd.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/research_trends_Issue27.pdf. (In Persian)

Lim, sook (2009). How and why do college students use Wikipedia. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60 (11), 2189- 2202.

Miller, Jacon and Murray, Hannah B. (2010). Wikipedia in court: when and how citing Wikipedia and other consensus websites is appropriate. ST. John’s Law Review, 84 (2), Retrived August 1, 2012 from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1502759

Nielsen, Finn Arup (2007). Scientific citation in Wikipedia. First Monday, 12 (8). Retrived July 14, 2012 from http://www.uci.edu/htbin/cgiwrao/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1997/1872

Park, Taeminkim (2011). The visibility of Wikipedia in scholarly publications. First Monday, 16 (8). Retrieved July 24, 2012 from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3492/303

Stoddard, Morgan Michelle (2009). Judicial citation to Wikipedia in published federal court opinions. Retrived July 11, 2012 from http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:hKEEc_RwBcoJ:scholar.google.com/+Judicial+citation+to+Wikipedia+in+published+federal+court+opinions.&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

West, Kathy, Williamson Janet (2009). Wikipedia: friend or foe. Reference services Review, 37 (3), 260- 2710.