How are encyclopedias cited in academic research? Wikipedia, Britannica, Baidu Baike, and Scholarpedia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.sep.08Keywords:
Wikipedia, Britannica, Baidu Baike, Scholarpedia, Encyclopedias, Scopus, Citation analysis, Open access, Scholarly communication, Multidisciplinary, CountriesAbstract
Encyclopedias are sometimes cited by scholarly publications, despite concerns about their credibility as sources for academic information. This study investigates trends from 2002 to 2020 in citing two crowdsourced and two expert-based encyclopedias to investigate whether they fit differently into the research landscape: Wikipedia, Britannica, Baidu Baike, and Scholarpedia. This is the first systematic comparison of the uptake of four major encyclopedias within academic research. Scopus searches were used to count the number of documents citing the four encyclopedias in each year. Wikipedia was by far the most cited encyclopedia, with up to 1% of Scopus documents citing it in Computer Science. Citations to Wikipedia increased exponentially until 2010, then slowed down and started to decrease. Both the Britannica and Scholarpedia citation rates were increasing in 2020, however. Disciplinary and national differences include Britannica being popular in Arts and Humanities, Scholarpedia in Neuroscience, and Baidu Baike in Chinese-speaking countries/territories. The results confirm that encyclopedias have minor value for academic research, often for background and definitions, with the most suitable one varying between fields and countries, and with the first evidence that the popularity of crowdsourced encyclopedias may be waning.
Downloads
References
Arroyo-Machado, Wenceslao; Torres-Salinas, Daniel; Herrera-Viedma, Enrique; Romero-Frías, Esteban (2020). "Science through Wikipedia: A novel representation of open knowledge through co-citation networks". PloS one, v. 15, n. 2, e0228713. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228713
Baker, Daniel J. (2011). "A Jester´s promenade: Citations to Wikipedia in law reviews, 2002-2008". Journal of law and policy for the information society, v. 7, n. 2, pp. 361-404. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1525619
Bould, M. Dylan; Hladkowicz, Emily S.; Pigford, Ashlee-Ann E.; Ufholz, Lee-Anne; Postonogova, Tatyana; Shin, Eunkyung; Boet, Sylvain (2014). "References that anyone can edit: Review of Wikipedia citations in peer reviewed health science literature". BMJ, v. 348, g1585. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g1585
Brazzeal, Bradley (2011). "Citations to Wikipedia in chemistry journals: A preliminary study". Issues in science and technology librarianship, v. Fall. https://doi.org/10.5062/F4057CV7
Chesney, Thomas (2006). "An empirical examination of Wikipedia´s credibility". First Monday, v. 11, n. 11. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v11i11.1413
Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (2015). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_Social_Sciences_Citation_Index&oldid=682574308
CNKI (2019). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=CNKI&oldid=913654910
Colavizza, Giovanni (2020). "Covid-19 research in Wikipedia". Quantitative science studies, v. 1, n. 4, pp. 1349-1380. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00080
Ding, Yudong; Zhang, Chunfeng; Liu, Ying (2013). "Statistics and analysis of wiki-based Chinese online-encyclopedia cited by journal papers". Journal of intelligence, v. 32, n. 3. http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-QBZZ201303019.htm
Encyclopí¦dia Britannica (2019). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica&oldid=931322238
Fallis, Don (2008). "Toward an epistemology of Wikipedia". Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, v. 59, n. 10, pp. 1662-1674. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20870
Giles, Jim (2005). "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head". Nature, v. 438, pp. 900-901. https://doi.org/10.1038/438900a
Holman-Rector, Lucy (2008). "Comparison of Wikipedia and other encyclopedias for accuracy, breadth, and depth in historical articles". Reference services review, v. 36, n. 1, pp. 7-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320810851998
Huggett, Sarah (2012). "The influence of free encyclopedias on science". Research trends, n. 27. https://www.researchtrends.com/issue-27-march-2012/the-influence-of-free-encyclopedias-on-science
Izhikevich, Eugene (2006). "Scholarpedia". Scholarpedia, v. 1, n. 2, pp. 1. https://doi.org/10.4249/scholarpedia.1
Jemielniak, Dariusz; Masukume, Gwinyai; Wilamowski, Maciej (2019). "The most influential medical journals according to Wikipedia: Quantitative analysis". Journal of medical internet research, v. 21, n. 1, e11429. https://doi.org/10.2196/11429
Jullien, Nicolas (2012). "What we know about Wikipedia: A review of the literature analyzing the project (s)". SSRN, 86 pp. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2053597
Kousha, Kayvan; Thelwall, Mike (2017). "Are Wikipedia citations important evidence of the impact of scholarly articles and books?". Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v. 68, n. 3. pp. 762-779. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23694
Kousha, Kayvan; Thelwall, Mike; Abdoli, Mahshid (2012). "The role of online videos in research communication: A content analysis of YouTube videos cited in academic publications". Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, v. 63, n. 9, pp. 1710-1727. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22717
Li, Xuemei; Thelwall, Mike; Kousha, Kayvan (2015). "The role of arXiv, RePEc, SSRN and PMC in formal scholarly communication". Aslib journal of information management, v. 67, n. 6, pp. 614-635. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2015-0049
Lih, Andrew (2004). "Wikipedia as participatory journalism: Reliable sources? Metrics for evaluating collaborative media as a news resource". In: 5th International symposium on online journalism. http://www.ufrgs.br/limc/participativo/pdf/wikipedia.pdf
Lin, Jennifer; Fenner, Martin (2014). "An analysis of Wikipedia references across PLOS publications". In: Altmetrics14: Expanding impacts and metrics an ACM web science conference 2014 workshop, pp. 23-26. https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/An_analysis_of_Wikipedia_references_across_PLOS_publications/1048991
Mesgari, Mastafa; Okoli, Chitu; Mehdi, Mohamad; Nielsen, Finn-Arup; Lanamí¤ki, Arto (2015). "´The sum of all human knowledge´: A systematic review of scholarly research on the content of Wikipedia". Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v. 66, n. 2, pp. 219-245. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23172
Messner, Marcus; DiStaso, Marcia W. (2013). "Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica: A longitudinal analysis to identify the impact of social media on the standards of knowledge". Mass communication and society, v. 16, n. 4, pp. 465-486. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2012.732649
Okoli, Chitu; Mehdi, Mohamad; Mesgari, Mastafa; Nielsen, Finn-Arup; Lanamí¤ki, Arto (2012). "The people´s encyclopedia under the gaze of the sages: A systematic review of scholarly research on Wikipedia". SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2021326
Okoli, Chitu; Mehdi, Mohamad; Mesgari, Mastafa; Nielsen, Finn-Arup; Lanamí¤ki, Arto (2014). "Wikipedia in the eyes of its beholders: A systematic review of scholarly research on Wikipedia readers and readership". Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v. 65, n. 12, pp. 2381-2403. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23162
Park, Taemin-Kim (2011). "The visibility of Wikipedia in scholarly publications". First Monday, v. 16, n. 8. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i8.3492
Priem, Jason; Piwowar, Heather A.; Hemminger, Bradley M. (2012). "Altmetrics in the wild: Using social media to explore scholarly impact". ArXiv. http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.4745
Samoilenko, Anna; Yasseri, Taha (2014). "The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia coverage of academics". EPJ data science, v. 3, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds20
Scopus (2021). How do I find Open Access journals and articles in Scopus?. Scopus: Access and use Support Center. https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11268/supporthub/scopus/kw/open+access
Shoyama, Rex (2014). "Citations to Wikipedia in Canadian law journal and law review articles". Canadian law library review, v. 39, n. 12, pp. 11-15. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2578678
Tohidinasab, Fariba; Jamali, Hamid R (2013). "Why and where Wikipedia is cited in journal articles?". Journal of scientometric research, v. 2, n. 3, pp. 231-238. https://doi.org/10.4103/2320-0057.135415
Tomaszewski, Robert (2018). "A comparative study of citations to chemical encyclopedias in scholarly articles: Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology and Ullmann´s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry". Scientometrics, v. 117, n. 1, pp. 175-189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2844-1
Tomaszewski, Robert; MacDonald, Karen I. (2018). "A study of citations to Wikipedia in scholarly publications". Science & technology libraries, n. 35, n. 3, pp. 246-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2016.1206052
Wang, Zhihong (2016). "Research on characteristics of online encyclopedia cited by LIS journal articles in China". Library and information service, v. 60, n. 19, pp. 99-107. http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-TSQB201619016.htm
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Dissemination conditions of the articles once they are published
Authors can freely disseminate their articles on websites, social networks and repositories
However, the following conditions must be respected:
- Only the editorial version should be made public. Please do not publish preprints, postprints or proofs.
- Along with this copy, a specific mention of the publication in which the text has appeared must be included, also adding a clickable link to the URL: http://www.profesionaldelainformacion.com
- Only the final editorial version should be made public. Please do not publish preprints, postprints or proofs.
- Along with that copy, a specific mention of the publication in which the text has appeared must be included, also adding a clickable link to the URL: http://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com
Profesional de la información journal offers the articles in open access with a Creative Commons BY license.
