This document discusses how Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects can help make research more openly accessible on a global scale. It notes that Wikipedia is a permanent, evolving source of verified information created through transparent collaboration. The document also provides statistics on the number of citations to a university's research outputs on Wikipedia and links from Wikipedia to their open access institutional repository. It promotes the benefits of universities partnering with Wikimedia through activities like hosting a Wikimedian in Residence to help manage and share resources globally through projects like Wikimedia Commons.

1. Open Access and
Wikipedia: Taking
accessible research to
the global public
Nick Sheppard
Open Research Advisor
Leeds University Library
n.sheppard@leeds.ac.uk
@OpenResLeeds

2. www.menti.com
12 82 57 8
Quick poll

3. “The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”
• permanent and evolving source of verified
information
• transparent record of edits over time
• set of fundamental principles
• accuracy comparable to Encyclopedia
Britannica
• Wikipedia just one of 16 interconnected
projects (e.g. Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata)
Wikipedia is only as good as its
All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy, citing reliable, authoritative sources, especially when the topic is
controversial or is about a living person. Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong on
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars

4. “The original idea of the web was that it should be a
collaborative space...by writing something together
[people] could iron out misunderstanding” Tim Berniers
Lee (2003)
“It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now
it is up to all of us to build the web we want - for
everyone” Tim Berniers Lee (2017)
The World Wide Web in 2019
Paul Clarke [CC BY-SA 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg

5. Top 10 DOI referrals from websites in 2015
https://www.crossref.org/blog/where-do-doi-clicks-come-from/
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
Wikipedia shapes language in science
papers
https://www.doi.org/10.1038/nature.2017
.22656
SSRN preprint (2017) Thompson et al
“Academia is fighting Wikipedia””

6. • White Rose Research Online (Leeds, Sheffield, York)
• data extracted from Altmetric.com (April 2019)
• results analysed for Open Access compliance using
Unpaywall
• 6454 citations of White Rose Universities’ research
on Wikipedia: Leeds (2406) | Sheffield (2523) | York
(1525)
• approx. 50% open access
• 856 links to White Rose Research Online (insource
search results) (01/03/21)
Links from Wikipedia to WRRO

7. Might this be automated by bots
using unpaywall, CORE etc?
https://whiterose.altmetric.com/details/16900363/wikipedia
Wikipedia:OABOT

8. • White Rose Research Online -
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Se
arch&search=insource%3A%22eprints.whiterose.ac.uk
%22&ns0=1&fulltext=Search
• Institutional Repository Usage Stats (IRUS UK - Jisc)
• https://irus.jisc.ac.uk/
• most downloaded papers ranked by altmetric score
• http://bit.ly/uksg_data
• Wikipedia links (first tab)
• instructions - http://bit.ly/OA_wiki_instructions
• How to run an editathon -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_run
_an_edit-a-thon
How well linked is your repository?

9. • Wikipedia
• Just one of 16 interconnected projects
• Wikimedia Commons
• repository of openly licensed
media files
• photographs, diagrams, video,
audio
• Wikidata
• fastest growing Wikimedia project
• structured data
• read / edited by human or
machine
Wikimedia ecosystem
Wikimedia, screenshot of Wikimedia project
icons, https://www.wikimedia.org/
Poulter, Martin, and Nick Sheppard. 2020. “Wikimedia and Universities: Contributing to the Global
Commons in the Age of Disinformation”. Insights 33 (1): 14. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.509

10. • Manage it locally to share it globally: RDM and
Wikimedia Commons (2018)
• Data Management Engagement award -
Cambridge University, SPARC Europe, Jisc
• link RDM with the open science movement
via the Wikimedia suite of tools
• Wikimedian in Residence
• Edinburgh
• Coventry
• Oxford (Bodleian)
Wikimedia in Universities
‘Universities really can’t afford not to have a Wikimedian in Residence
these days. It still surprises me how few do.’
Melissa Highton, Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services, University of Edinburgh

11. • Poulter, Martin, and Nick Sheppard. 2020. “Wikimedia
and Universities: Contributing to the Global Commons
in the Age of Disinformation”. Insights 33 (1): 14.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.509
• Wikimedia resources from the University of Edinburgh -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_
Edinburgh/Resources
• Wilson Armistead -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Armistead
Thank you