Presentation delivered as part of OpenFest Online Symposium at the University of Sheffield on 7th September 2023. Abstract: Google something, anything. What are the top ten results? Whether a scientific concept, political theory or research methodology, Wikipedia will almost certainly be near the top, if not the very first result. As a large-scale collaborative platform funded through charitable donations, with a mission to provide universal free access to knowledge as a public good, Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites in the world and a primary source of information on the web, especially for people outside academia. This presentation will explore the role of Wikipedia in the information ecosystem, where it occupies a unique role as a bridge between informal discussion and scholarly publication. We explore how it relates to the broader Wikimedia ecosystem, through structured data on Wikidata for instance, and openly licensed media on Wikimedia Commons. We consider the potential for universities to engage strategically with Wikimedia and the benefits of doing so, in the areas of information literacy and research impact, sharing openly licensed text and images to improve Wikipedia, for example, and linking Wikipedia citations to open access repositories. We will discuss our Wikimedia Champions project at the University of Leeds, which has recruited PGRs to examine Wikipedia in their subject area, identifying areas of need and making contributions. The project has been an opportunity to explore ways of sharing University research with a wider audience in an open and accessible way and thereby contribute to the global commons.

1. Wikimedia and open
research
Nick Sheppard, Open Research Advisor, University of Leeds Libraries
n.sheppard@leeds.ac.uk
Joanna Brown, Senior Learning Technologist, Faculty of Biological
Sciences, University of Leeds
j.m.brown@leeds.ac.uk

2. Ever heard of Wilson Armistead?
What do you know about cryogenic electron microscopy?
• Google…or Bing, DuckDuckGo
• Where is Wikipedia in the results?
• Post a fact
• What is the source of that information?
Where do people find information?

3. • Wikipedia: “The free encyclopedia that anyone
can edit”
• The Wikimedia Ecosystem
• Wikipedia just 1 of 16 interconnected
projects e.g. Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata
• How Wikimedia fulfils the visions of open research
and open education
• Wikimedia Champions at the University of Leeds
Wikimedia and open research

4. “The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”
Wikipedia does not compete with the scholarly literature but makes it accessible to the widest possible audience.
Improving an article means that more, not fewer, people read the peer-validated literature because readers follow
links to cited sources (Poulter & Sheppard, 2020)
• permanent, evolving source of verified information
• transparent record of edits over time
• article ‘Talk’ page
• set of fundamental principles
• Wikipedia: Five pillars
• variable quality – stub | start | good article |
featured article
• issues of bias
• 18 % biographies are about women
• major discrepancies in geographical coverage
• only as good – and diverse – as its contributors
Top 10 DOI referrals from websites in 2015
Where do DOI clicks come from? Crossref blog (2016)
1. webofknowledge.com
2. baidu.com
3. serialssolutions.com
4. scopus.com
5. exlibrisgroup.com
6. wikipedia.org
7. google.com
8. uni-trier.de
9. ebsco.com
10. google.co.uk

5. Wikipedia and open access
Top referrers to White Rose Research Online
1063 incoming links from Wikipedia
• White Rose Research Online (Leeds, Sheffield & York)
• data extracted from Altmetric.com (April 2019)
• results analysed for open access status using Unpaywall
• 6454 citations of White Rose Universities’ research on
Wikipedia: Leeds (2407) | Sheffield (2523) | York (1525)
• approx. 50% open access
• Tattersall et al 2022
• 1063 links to WRRO (06/09/2023)
• Wilson Armistead
Text from suitably licensed papers can be added to Wikipedia
articles. Template to fully cite the source paper and indicate
that it is being copied as well as cited:
Genome diversity and karyotype evolution of mammals

6. Wikimedia ecosystem
• Wikimedia Commons
• repository of openly licensed media files
• photographs, diagrams, video, audio
• easy to embed media into a relevant article on
Wikipedia
• Wikidata
• ‘knowledge graph’
• represents knowledge through the connections
between things
• read / edited by human or machine
• fastest growing Wikimedia project (>100 million
items)
Two Wikimedia projects have a special role, providing digital media or data to all the other projects (as well as to sites and
applications external to Wikimedia)
Wikimedia, screenshot of Wikimedia project icons,
http://www.Wikimedia.org/ *CoI less of an issue with Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata

7. • most popular information site on the modern web - among the top hits for any academic
topic
• Wikipedia shapes language in science papers. Nature (2017)
• Science Is Shaped by Wikipedia: Evidence From a Randomized Control Trial
(Thompson et al, 2017)
• all content freely licensed or in the public domain (rules out ‘Non-commercial’ or ‘No
Derivatives’ licenses)
• reuse of appropriately licensed research outputs on Wikimedia platforms:
• helps them reach and educate a large audience
• credits the source publication
• Once on Wikimedia, text, media, or data can be contextualised, translated or built upon
• fulfils the visions of open education and open research
Wikimedia and open research

8. • upload figures and other files from suitably licensed research outputs to Wikimedia
Commons
• available for use on hundreds of sites
• rich descriptions and metadata
• full citation and DOI to source paper or dataset
• When media have been generated with code, the source code can be included
• animated map of supernovae discovered since 1885
• Python code used to generate it
• link to source dataset
• every edit recorded, permanently archived
• ‘history’ tab acts as version control
• updated or corrected code
Wikimedia Commons - reusing digital media

9. • Wikimedia projects available in around 300 languages
• media files in SVG format makes text labels easy to edit for other language
communities
• visualisation of the PEATMAP dataset
• extracted from a research paper and uploaded to Commons
• illustrates articles about peat in six languages
• more than half a million views a year
A Global Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PEATMAP.jpg
Xu, Jiren and Morris, Paul J. and Liu, Junguo and Holden,
Joseph (2017) PEATMAP: Refining estimates of global peatland
distribution based on a meta-analysis. University of Leeds.
[Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/252

10. • secondary data about more than a hundred million entities
• acts as hub for the web of Linked Open Data
• research outputs of any size can potentially be visible on Wikidata
• individual conclusions can be added to Wikidata’s knowledge graph
• citation to the research paper
• identifiers from large online database can be added in bulk to Wikidata
• Wikidata query service – SPARQL
• Examples of Wikidata in action (Edinburgh)
• https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/is-
skills/wikimedia/wikidata/use-cases
Sharing data with Wikidata

11. • Dr Chris Hassall, Associate Professor of Animal Biology
• Endangered species with no Wikipedia article?
• Students research and write one!
IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) conservation statuses and
number of taxa in Wikidata (query)
Endangered taxa with representation on Wikimedia but no English Wikipedia
article (results)
Using Wikidata in teaching and research

12. • A conversation in Edinburgh
• A Open Lunch event: A global commons: turning
research into educational material with Wikimedia
• Some spare funding (Enhancing research culture
from Research England)
• An idea...
… to explore a Wikimedia project
with PGRs
Team: Chris Hassall (academic), Joanna Brown (senior
learning technologist), Martin Poulter (consultant/wikimedian
in residence), Nick Sheppard (open research advisor)
Wikimedia Champions Project: how it began

13. Wikimedia Champions Project: summary
Year 1
• Two PGRs
• From the Faculty of Biological Sciences
• Summer 2022
• Paid work – funded by Research England
• 8 weeks - starting June 2022
• Up to 80 hours per student
Admin – Faculty of Biological Sciences
• Recruitment
• Time sheets/payment
Year 2
• Seven PGRs
• From four faculties (Arts, Humanities and
Cultures, Environment, Biological Sciences,
Engineering and Physical Sciences,
• Summer 2023
• Paid work – funded by Research England
• 2 months – starting April 2023
• Up to 60 hours per student
Admin – The Library
• Recruitment
• Time sheets/payment

14. Some benefits to students
 Skills: information literacy, communication
skills, teamwork
Greater understanding of
Wikipedia/Wikimedia/Open Education
Motivation: contributions that make a
difference
Wikimedia Champions Project: benefits

15. Wikimedia Champions: an example

16. Wikimedia Champions: an example

17. Wikimedia Champions: an example

18. Wikiways by Matt Harvey
Manifold Wonder by Francesca Beard
Wikimedia Champions Project: poems

19. Podcast
•Research Culture Uncovered
•Featuring PGRs
"Interesting to hear what skills researchers can
bring to Wiki and what skills they can gain from
engaging with it" Open Research, University of
Aberdeen
Wikimedia Champions Project: poems

20. Poulter, M. and Sheppard, N., 2020. Wikimedia and universities: contributing to the global
commons in the Age of Disinformation. Insights: the UKSG journal, 33(1), p.14.DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.509
Tattersall, A., Sheppard, N., Blake, T., O’Neill, K. and Carroll, C., 2022. Exploring open access
coverage of Wikipedia-cited research across the White Rose Universities. Insights: the UKSG
journal, 35(0), p.3.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.559
Sheppard, N., Hassall, C., Khan, H., Soanes, B., 2023. "Wikimedia Champions at the
University of Leeds". Research Culture Uncovered Podcast. Available from: https://research-
culture.captivate.fm/episode/wikimedia-champions-at-the-university-of-leeds
Sheppard, N., Poulter, M., 2023. "The open knowledge revolution: contributing to the global
commons with Wikimedian Dr Martin Poulter". Research Culture Uncovered Podcast.
Available from: https://research-culture.captivate.fm/episode/open-knowledge-activism-
contributing-to-the-global-commons-with-wikimedian-dr-martin-poulter
References

21. Poulter, M. (2022) Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata: why and how? (presentation to
Wikimedia Champions)
White Rose event (2023): The role of Wikidata in the research lifecycle (full
recording on Wikimedia Commons)
Open Research Case Studies: School of English with Bridget Bennett “The
Dissenting Atlantic: Archives and Unquiet Libraries, 1776-1865”
https://sway.office.com/3UtasPmN7j93kS4v?ref=Link
Open Research Case studies by faculty (2023)
https://leedsunilibrary.wordpress.com/2022/12/09/open-research-case-studies-by-
faculty/
References

22. Thanks to:
Wikimedia UK (especially Richard Nevell)
Dr Martin Poulter
Wikimedia Champions:
Hira Khan, Bethan Soanes, Lucy McConnell, Tanveer Ahmed, Daniela Navarro Perez,
Deborah Oliviera, Jeni Sidwell, Roz Latham, Yashashwani Srinivas
Research England and the Open Research Advisory Group at the University of Leeds
for funding Wikimedia Champions
Acknowledgements

23. Leeds University Library​
Leeds, United Kingdom​
LS2 9JT​
Library no​
library.leeds.ac.uk
Please get in touch!
Nick Sheppard, Open Research Advisor, University of Leeds Libraries
n.sheppard@leeds.ac.uk
Joanna Brown, Senior Learning Technologist, Faculty of Biological Sciences,
University of Leeds
j.m.brown@leeds.ac.uk
@OpenResLeeds