Faculty perception of Wikipedia in the California State University System

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose: The study explored whether faculty perceptions of Wikipedia have changed over a five-year period.Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted of four universities in the Practical Implications: The growing acceptance of Wikipedia has implications for course work with students both in terms of assignments in the discipline and also for the need to ensure students understand how to evaluate sources. Social implications:The shift to Wikipedia is symptomatic of the larger shift to nontraditional research tools.Originality/value: The literature discussing faculty perceptions of Wikipedia has not discussed whether faculty perceptions are shifting.

Are wikipedia citations important evidence of the impact of scholarly articles and books?

“…As a result, Wikipedia should be used cautiously in higher education (Bayliss, ; Chen, ; Eijkman, ; Luyt & Tan, ) and should not be used in academic publications (Bould et al, ; Cohen, ). Although Wikipedia is widely used for learning, teaching, and other academic activities, (e.g., Aibar, Lladós‐Masllorens, Meseguer‐Artola, Minguillón, & Lerga, ; Dooley, ; Giles, ; Head & Eisenberg, ; Knight & Pryke, ; Lim, ; Soules, ), it is not clear what the main audience for Wikipedia articles citing academic research is: students, academics, or the general public. Nevertheless, it is at least possible that Wikipedia reflects knowledge production and use in a wider social context (Luyt & Tan, ) or has some “epistemic virtues” (e.g., power, speed, and fecundity) (Fallis, ) and hence citations from Wikipedia may indicate broader applications of academic outputs inside or outside of academia.…”

Explaining teaching uses of Wikipedia through faculty personal and contextual features

“…The lack of significant influence of these personal attributes confirms that differences in attitudes among faculty arise from a more complex process (Purcell et al 2013;Soules 2015). In addition, belonging to an online university does not seem to encourage a more active use of Wikipedia as a teaching tool.…”

Bridging the gap between wikipedia and academia

“…It is worth observing that the perception of Wikipedia's quality has improved over time, particularly among academics (Shachaf, ; Soules, ). There already are scholars who openly and clearly support it (Bateman & Logan, ; Heilman et al, ), and there already are institutional initiatives encouraging professors to contribute to Wikipedia.…”