The Wonderful World of Wikis
Presentation to:
HEA Bioscience Centre Meeting 11th December 2007
By:
Dr Viv Rolfe BSc PhD MIBMS FHEA
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Wikipedia needs no introduction
• Every minute 300 babies are born and
400 words added to Wikipedia.
• 8% of global internet users visited
Wikipedia yesterday.
• 16% of users are in US.
• 250 languages.
www.Alexa.com – internet surveillance.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

I was glad to see the Bioscience Centre had a
space on Wikipedia…
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

…but why am I interested in it?
• 1st year student essay on “why studying
cells and tissues is important in science”.
• I was amazed how many students cited
Wikipedia in their references.
• Turnitin identified it as a common source
of “similar” information.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Aims of the Project
• Analysis of Turnitin reports to see the
extent of the problem?
• What were students’ perceptions of
using it?
• Should students be using it?
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Turnitin Analysis
• Evaluate the use of W in reference lists and
whether W was identified as a “similar” source in
the originality report.
• Only assessed significant matches i.e. >2%
similarity.
• Caveat – T might actually be underestimating:
– Doesn’t always find the 1y source of info.
– Doesn’t always identify news or very recent info.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Citing Wikipedia?
• Out of 76 students:
– 29% cited W in their reference lists.
– 4% cited W more than once.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Was W identified as a similar source?
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

High levels of similarity linked to higher numbers
of sources
Levels of Number of Average
similarity students number of
similar
sources
High (>50%) 6 7.2
Moderate 17 4.0
(25-50%)
Low (<25%) 53 1.5
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

High levels of similarity corresponded to higher
use of Wikipedia
Average student use of Wikis as a source of copying
1.6
Wikipedia
1.4
Wiki + others
No. of times W identified
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
High Medium Low
Levels of similarity
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

“Others”
• Websites that use Wikipedia information
or are alternative Wikis:
• http://www.witwib.com
• http://www.biologydaily.com
• http://www.unipedia.info
• http://www.encyclopedia.com
• http://www.wikifaq.com
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Summary
• Surprisingly (to me) high number (third)
of 1st year students cited Wikipedia as a
scientific resource.
• There was a relationship between use
of Wikipedia and poorer academic
practice.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

To WIKI or not to WIKI, that is
the question?
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

The Yay’s….
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Jim Giles, 2005, Nature paper.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

…but actually,
• Jim Giles, 2005, Nature paper.
• Analysed 42 subjects.
• Wikipedia (162 errors) contained a third
more errors than Encyclopedia
Britannica (124 total errors).
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Student perception
• Discussions in computer lab tutorials (n=84
1st year students).
• Wikipedia is popular with students “one of the
first places I look for information”.
• They didn’t understand what constituted good
scientific evidence was and how to identify it.
• I wanted to harvest their enthusiasm for it to
demonstrate good scientific practice.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Exercise
• Worksheet on the topic of flatulence (as
part of gut physiology lecture series).
• Comparison of Wikipedia to Medline
resources.
• Looked at: accuracy, currency, authority,
etc.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Accuracy
• Looked at whether a statement was
factually correct:
• “Anything that causes food to be
incompletely digested in the small
intestine may cause flatulence when the
material arrives in the large intestine
due to fermentation, particularly if yeast
organisms are present”. Wikipedia 2007
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Reliability
• “Certain spices counteract the
production of intestinal gas, most
notably cumin, caraway……”. Wikipedia
2007.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Students’ conclusions
• It is not robust scientific evidence.
• Unknown authorship makes citation
difficult.
• Use to generate key words when faced
with a new subject.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Authorship
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Vandalism
• Barking spiders.
• Barbra Streisand.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

My conclusions
• Giving 1st years a free reign to use W is a
useful way of discussing scientific evidence
and developing critical evaluation skills.
• I wouldn’t expect yr 2 and 3 students to cite
Wikipedia!
• Too many intrinsic problems to be a reliable
source but some of this is changing.
• Universities are using W in creative ways to
assess student contributions, rather than a
blanket ban.
vrolfe@dmu.ac.uk Faculty of Health and Life Sciences