Amplifying the Impact of Open Access: Wikipedia and the Diffusion of Science

TL;DR

This study shows that open access journals are more likely to be referenced on Wikipedia, significantly amplifying the dissemination of scientific knowledge to the public.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that open access policies increase the likelihood of scientific articles being referenced on Wikipedia, enhancing science diffusion.

Findings

Open access journals are 47% more likely to be referenced on Wikipedia.

Impact factor and accessibility significantly influence Wikipedia referencing.

Open access policies amplify science dissemination via Wikipedia.

Abstract

With the rise of Wikipedia as a first-stop source for scientific knowledge, it is important to compare its representation of that knowledge to that of the academic literature. Here we identify the 250 most heavily used journals in each of 26 research fields (4,721 journals, 19.4M articles in total) indexed by the Scopus database, and test whether topic, academic status, and accessibility make articles from these journals more or less likely to be referenced on Wikipedia. We find that a journal's academic status (impact factor) and accessibility (open access policy) both strongly increase the probability of it being referenced on Wikipedia. Controlling for field and impact factor, the odds that an open access journal is referenced on the English Wikipedia are 47% higher compared to paywall journals. One of the implications of this study is that a major consequence of open access policies is to significantly amplify the diffusion of science, through an intermediary like Wikipedia, to a broad audience.