[Foundation-l] The People’s Encyclopedia Under the Gaze of the Sages: A Sys tematic Review of Scholarly Research on Wikipedia

[Fred Bauder]

Abstract:
Wikipedia has become one of the ten most visited sites on the Web, and
the world’s leading source of Web reference information. Its rapid
success has inspired hundreds of scholars from various disciplines to
study its content, communication and community dynamics from various
perspectives. This article presents a protocol for conducting a
systematic mapping (a broad-based literature review) of scholarly
research on Wikipedia. The purpose of this review is to analyze
particular trends in research and offer the basic groundwork for future
studies. We identify what research has been conducted; what research
questions have been asked, and which have been answered and which remain
unanswered; and what theories and methodologies have been employed to
study Wikipedia. This protocol follows the systematic literature review
methodology to conduct a systematic mapping study. The review process is
work in progress, and has thus far identified over 2,000 studies.

This working paper is a rough first draft combining three different
working papers by the authors. In its current form, it mainly serves as a
placeholder to provide a source for attribution for the website, which
presents the papers analyzed in the systematic part of this review.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 71

Keywords: Wikipedia, systematic literature review, open content, open
knowledge, free cultural works, open source
Working Paper Series

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http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2021326

Fred