Hi Federico, Thanks for the clarification! I also think that it is very difficult to understand bias--where it is coming from and what is contributing to it--when it has not been measured. I originally came here looking for information about the existing gender balance of citations on Wikipedia so that I could begin to understand what is happening. My concerns have unfolded over the course of this conversation.
I am cc'ing Gerard here because I received his note via digest but wanted to say thank you. I am curious about how best to approach using wikidata to generate useful information about gender balance and if there are any issues around doing this.
Thanks all, Greg
On Sat, Aug 31, 2019 at 12:43 AM Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com wrote:
Greg, 31/08/19 05:17:
Thanks, Federico. Do you mean that examining gender bias is more relevant to google than wikipedia? Or necessary before any work can be done here?
I'm saying that any gender bias of citations on Wikipedia articles will compound a number of factors, including the underlying bias in the literature, bias in how it's presented in discovery tools, etc. As long as we don't know the size of such underlying biases, I suspect an attempt to measure Wikipedia's specific contribution would be futile.
It's also a standard research practice to break down a problem into smaller parts, easier to manage. Google Scholar or similar tools are already large enough. Millions of Wikipedia authors and all their background and methods are however significantly larger.
Federico