Wikipedia and institutional repositories: an academic symbiosis?

Abstract

A study of citations from Wikipedia articles to documents in institutional repositories showed that although the number of citations was small in relation to the number of documents (citations made to the repositories were 0.35% of the number of documents in the repositories) institutional repositories were a useful source of research information to support Wikipedia articles. 35% of citations were for background information, and 65% were citations supporting specific points, for example: scientific or historical facts, expression of a consensus, attribution of an idea, a convenient summary, the source of a classification, or to give an academic cast to a popular culture article. The types of documents cited reflect the range of academic publishing: 22% of citations were to PhD Theses, 15% to Master level theses, 21% to journal articles, 17% to conference papers, and 11% to technical or working papers. Although the materials in the repositories were overwhelmingly in English, 35% of citations were made from non-English versions of Wikipedia, indicating that institutional repositories play a role in making research available across national and language barriers. Although Wikipedia has been viewed with suspicion by academia the study indicates a potential symbiosis between Wikipedia and academic research in institutional repositories.