echemi logo
Product
  • Product
  • Supplier
  • Inquiry
    Home > Nature: how does "unreliable" Wikipedia affect scientific research writing

    Nature: how does "unreliable" Wikipedia affect scientific research writing

    • Last Update: 2017-10-28
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
    Search more information of high quality chemicals, good prices and reliable suppliers, visit www.echemi.com
    As one of the most visited websites in the world, Wikipedia is also one of the most popular websites for mining information of natural and social sciences But scientists are usually cautious because the information on the site can be edited by anyone Nevertheless, the online encyclopedia seems to have been influencing the language researchers use in their papers A new study shows that words and phrases published in Wikipedia articles often appear in scientific papers later Neil Thompson, an innovation scholar at MIT, said the findings contradicted the academic culture that despised Wikipedia as a rigorous source of scientific knowledge "Because almost anyone can edit information on Wikipedia, many scientists think it's a wilderness." He said that the content of Wikipedia is generally not to be seen in academia, and many universities have reminded students not to use Wikipedia as a reference source in their assignments However, the latest research published on the social science research network (SSRN) preprint server shows that Wikipedia articles can serve as continuously updated open access review articles Thompson is a co-author of the study He and another co-author, Douglas Hanley, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh, asked Ph.D students to write 43 chemical papers on topics that did not appear on Wikipedia In January 2015, they randomly selected half of the articles to publish on the website Half of the other papers that served as control articles were not uploaded to Wikipedia By February 2017, these articles had been viewed more than 2 million times Then, the researchers analyzed articles published in Elsevier's 50 most influential chemical journals to see if the language used in scientific papers had changed in November 2016, nearly two years after the Wikipedia article was published They use text mining technology to detect the frequency of words used, and find that during the research period, the language in research papers changes with the introduction of new words into the research field This natural shift is equivalent to one new word in every 250 words In addition to these natural language changes over time, one out of every 300 words in scientific papers is influenced by the language of Wikipedia articles Compared with well-known publications, this effect is more obvious in less cited journals According to the researchers, the first published ideas and languages on new scientific topics first enter Wikipedia, and then feed back to the literature used in subsequent studies When they analyzed the paper based on the author's country, they found that the impact was more pronounced in low-income countries than in high-income countries If some authors have limited access to expensive journals, they may rely more on Wikipedia Wikipedia is an equalizer that can extend science to areas where academic resources are scarce Dr Martin Poulter, the organizer of the first Wikipedia science conference at the Wellcome building in London and the library of Oxford University, said that Wikipedia is a community of "nerds" who are most concerned about whether the facts are correct Although some people are skeptical, in many cases, Wikipedia's content is of high quality because of these almost paranoid "nerds" volunteers Poulter has been working to bring these "nerds" together with scientists and publishers, who are experts in their respective fields, so their participation will help improve Wikipedia's content But in general, for a variety of reasons, scientists do not want to intervene Alex Bateman, a computational biologist at the European Institute of bioinformatics in the UK, points out that the number of Wikipedia editors is actually declining He hopes more scientists will be willing to edit Wikipedia content in their own fields But he also said it was very different from writing a paper The main thing was that there was a "cultural barrier." Poulter said that scholars are usually busy, especially old-fashioned scholars who are reluctant to participate in "trivial discussions" on the Internet Of course, there have been many different efforts around the world to bring scientists to Wikipedia, but these efforts have been very fragmented and failed to form a joint force One effort is to reassure scientists about the quality of Wikipedia's articles by trying to improve the biography of living scientists First of all, members of the royal society are involved Duncan Hull, a computer scientist at University of Manchester, persuaded members of the society to edit part-time content, correcting mistakes and errors Having their own information on Wikipedia will change scientists' attitudes towards the site If they find that their life and achievements information is correct, they may change their view that Wikipedia is the way of public information dissemination.
    This article is an English version of an article which is originally in the Chinese language on echemi.com and is provided for information purposes only. This website makes no representation or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness ownership or reliability of the article or any translations thereof. If you have any concerns or complaints relating to the article, please send an email, providing a detailed description of the concern or complaint, to service@echemi.com. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days. Once verified, infringing content will be removed immediately.

    Contact Us

    The source of this page with content of products and services is from Internet, which doesn't represent ECHEMI's opinion. If you have any queries, please write to service@echemi.com. It will be replied within 5 days.

    Moreover, if you find any instances of plagiarism from the page, please send email to service@echemi.com with relevant evidence.