Thanks Samuel,

I think it would be great to have more citation tracking in Wikimedia projects! The projects you mention were new to me, but they're quite related to my own research in argumentation, and coming out of the library community, for me, citation analysis is second nature!
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiTextrose
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikicite

Have you run into AcaWiki? It's conceived of as a "Wikipedia for academic research" and uses CC-BY and Semantic MediaWiki:
http://www.acawiki.org/
AcaWiki focuses more on summarizing articles than on linking their citations together.There is a BibTeX importer -- which could be adapted for use in other MediaWiki installations (one of the desired parts of that project). It's a useful place to gather summaries for generals and other reading-based exams--for instance here's Benjamin Mako Hill's collection:
http://acawiki.org/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill/Generals
I used to work with AcaWiki, and would love any feedback on the site (offlist).

It was interesting to hear of BibDex!
http://www.bibdex.com/
I'll definitely take a closer look.

One possibility would be to draw on existing projects which are already documenting sources, particularly in confusing and problematic areas, where "good source" is not obvious or well-understood.

For instance, on English Wikipedia, the WikiProject video games has a guideline on sources, documenting particular websites that are and are not reliable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Video_games/Sources
 WikiProject Japan has documented offline resources recommended for the project:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Japan/Reference_library
These projects are far from alone, as a search will show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&redirs=1&search=sources+wikiproject

If you want to get Wikicite and WikiTextrose going again -- or others are proposed as Brian mentions -- I'd like to be involved.
...recently submitted a project proposal to the Foundation along the
lines of community documentation of scientific (and other) sources.

So, let me know how I can contribute.

:) -Jodi

On 22 Jun 2010, at 00:38, Samuel Klein wrote:

The idea is to have a wiki-project with an entry for every cited
source, author, and publication -- including critical secondary
sources that exist only to comment on sources/authors/publications.

Aggregate information about the reliability of these sources, where
they are used, how they are discussed and linked together.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiTextrose
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikicite

The "wikitextrose" proposal aims to gather data about these types of
sources, and links between them.

The "wikicite" proposal aims to organize citable statements on other
wiki projects so that one can trace the origins of the idea expressed
back to sources.

SJ


On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 5:51 AM, Jodi Schneider <jodi.schneider@deri.org> wrote:
Samuel,

This is great!

What's the idea for a WikiCite project?

-Jodi

On 20 Jun 2010, at 22:44, Samuel Klein wrote:

Some motivation for a proper WikiCite project.     --sj


=============== Begin forwarded message ==================
"How citation distortions create unfounded authority: analysis of a
citation network"
       http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/jul20_3/b2680


Abstract:

Objective -To understand belief in a specific scientific claim by
studying the pattern of citations among papers stating it.

Design - A complete citation network was constructed from all PubMed
indexed English literature papers addressing the belief that \u03b2
amyloid, a protein accumulated in the brain in Alzheimer\u2019s
disease, is produced by and injures skeletal muscle of patients with
inclusion body myositis. Social network theory and graph theory were
used to analyse this network.

Main outcome measures - Citation bias, amplification, and invention,
and their effects on determining authority.

Results:
The network contained 242 papers and 675 citations addressing the
belief, with 220 553 citation paths supporting it. Unfounded authority
was established by citation bias against papers that refuted or
weakened the belief; amplification, the marked expansion of the belief
system by papers presenting no data addressing it; and forms of
invention such as the conversion of hypothesis into fact through
citation alone. Extension of this network into text within grants
funded by the National Institutes of Health
and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed the same
phenomena present and sometimes used to justify requests for funding.

Conclusion:
Citation is both an impartial scholarly method and a powerful form of
social communication. Through distortions in its social use that
include bias, amplification, and invention, citation can be used to
generate
information cascades resulting in unfounded authority of claims.
Construction and analysis of a claim specific citation network may
clarify the nature of a published belief system and expose distorted
methods of social citation.




--
Samuel Klein          identi.ca:sj           w:user:sj



--
Samuel Klein          identi.ca:sj           w:user:sj

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--
Samuel Klein          identi.ca:sj           w:user:sj

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