Dataset Information

Understanding Editing Behaviors in Multilingual Wikipedia.

ABSTRACT: Multilingualism is common offline, but we have a more limited understanding of the ways multilingualism is displayed online and the roles that multilinguals play in the spread of content between speakers of different languages. We take a computational approach to studying multilingualism using one of the largest user-generated content platforms, Wikipedia. We study multilingualism by collecting and analyzing a large dataset of the content written by multilingual editors of the English, German, and Spanish editions of Wikipedia. This dataset contains over two million paragraphs edited by over 15,000 multilingual users from July 8 to August 9, 2013. We analyze these multilingual editors in terms of their engagement, interests, and language proficiency in their primary and non-primary (secondary) languages and find that the English edition of Wikipedia displays different dynamics from the Spanish and German editions. Users primarily editing the Spanish and German editions make more complex edits than users who edit these editions as a second language. In contrast, users editing the English edition as a second language make edits that are just as complex as the edits by users who primarily edit the English edition. In this way, English serves a special role bringing together content written by multilinguals from many language editions. Nonetheless, language remains a formidable hurdle to the spread of content: we find evidence for a complexity barrier whereby editors are less likely to edit complex content in a second language. In addition, we find that multilinguals are less engaged and show lower levels of language proficiency in their second languages. We also examine the topical interests of multilingual editors and find that there is no significant difference between primary and non-primary editors in each language.

SUBMITTER: Kim S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4865083 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Understanding Editing Behaviors in Multilingual Wikipedia.

Kim Suin S Park Sungjoon S Hale Scott A SA Kim Sooyoung S Byun Jeongmin J Oh Alice H AH

PloS one 20160512 5

Multilingualism is common offline, but we have a more limited understanding of the ways multilingualism is displayed online and the roles that multilinguals play in the spread of content between speakers of different languages. We take a computational approach to studying multilingualism using one of the largest user-generated content platforms, Wikipedia. We study multilingualism by collecting and analyzing a large dataset of the content written by multilingual editors of the English, German, a ...[more]

PMID: 27171158

Similar Datasets

Project description:IntroductionWikipedia is an online encyclopedia read by millions seeking medical information. To provide health professions students with skills to critically assess, edit, and improve Wikipedia's medical content, a skillset aligned with evidence-based medicine (EBM), Wikipedia courses have been integrated into health professions schools' curriculum. This literature review and curricular inventory of Wikipedia educational initiatives provides an overview of current approaches and identifies directions for future initiatives and research.MethodsFive databases were searched for articles describing educational interventions to train health professional students to edit Wikipedia. Course dashboards, maintained by Wiki Education (Wiki Edu), were searched for curricular materials. From these sources, key details were extracted and synthesized, including student and instructor type, course content, educational methods, and student outcomes.ResultsSix articles and 27 dashboards reported courses offered between 2015 and 2019. Courses were predominantly offered to medical and nursing students. Instructors delivered content via videos, live lectures, and online interactive modules. Course content included logistics of Wikipedia editing, EBM skills, and health literacy. All courses included assignments requiring students to edit Wikipedia independently or in groups. Limited details on assessment of student learning were available.DiscussionA small but growing number of schools are training health professions education students to improve Wikipedia's medical content. Course details are available on Wiki Edu dashboards and, to a lesser extent, in peer-reviewed publications. While more needs to be done in conducting and sharing assessment of student learning, integrating Wikipedia into health professions education has potential to facilitate learning of EBM and communication skills, improve Wikipedia's online content, and engage students with an autonomous environment while learning. Future considerations should include a thorough assessment of student learning and practices, a final review of student edits to ensure they follow Wikipedia's guidelines and are written in clear language, and improved sharing of teaching resources by instructors.

Project description:Raising public awareness of sepsis, a potentially life-threatening dysregulated host response to infection, to hasten its recognition has become a major focus of physicians, investigators, and both non-governmental and governmental agencies. While the internet is a common means by which to seek out healthcare information, little is understood about patterns and drivers of these behaviors. We sought to examine traffic to Wikipedia, a popular and publicly available online encyclopedia, to better understand how, when, and why users access information about sepsis. Utilizing pageview traffic data for all available language localizations of the sepsis and septic shock pages between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2018, significantly outlying daily pageview totals were identified using a seasonal hybrid extreme studentized deviate approach. Consecutive outlying days were aggregated, and a qualitative analysis was undertaken of print and online news media coverage to identify potential correlates. Traffic patterns were further characterized using paired referrer to resource (i.e. clickstream) data, which were available for a temporal subset of the pageviews. Of the 20,557,055 pageviews across 65 linguistic localizations, 47 of the 1,096 total daily pageview counts were identified as upward outliers. After aggregating sequential outlying days, 25 epochs were examined. Qualitative analysis identified at least one major news media correlate for each, which were typically related to high-profile deaths from sepsis and, less commonly, awareness promotion efforts. Clickstream analysis suggests that most sepsis and septic shock Wikipedia pageviews originate from external referrals, namely search engines. Owing to its granular and publicly available traffic data, Wikipedia holds promise as a means by which to better understand global drivers of online sepsis information seeking. Further characterization of user engagement with this information may help to elucidate means by which to optimize the visibility, content, and delivery of awareness promotion efforts.

Dataset Information

Understanding Editing Behaviors in Multilingual Wikipedia.

Publications

Understanding Editing Behaviors in Multilingual Wikipedia.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets