Hi Leila, Thanks for your thoughts.
Having just read Troy Vettese's very powerful essay, Sexism in the Academy ( https://nplusonemag.com/issue-34/essays/sexism-in-the-academy/), I wish this were a top priority. I stumbled upon a study today--it came up in the Washington Post's excellent series on gender bias in political science. The authors look at a set of award winning political science books and the gender imbalance in the citations drawn from google scholar. I'm linking the piece here in case anyone on this list is interested now, or in the future, in how the patterns on Wikipedia compare. Washington Post piece: "There’s a gender gap in who wins political science book awards – and in how widely they’re cited" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/22/theres-gender-gap-who-wins-political-science-book-awards-how-widely-theyre-cited/ "Just as significantly, women’s award-winning books receive fewer scholarly citations than men’s award-winning volumes — and this disparity has grown, rather than shrunk, in recent years. Over the entire period, APSA award-winning volumes by women averaged 43 percent fewer citations per year than those by male authors." Paper: "Winning awards and gaining recognition: An impact analysis of APSA section book prizes" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0362331918300867 Best, Greg On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 3:44 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > Send Wiki-research-l mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wiki-research-l digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: gender balance of wikipedia citations (Greg) > 2. Re: gender balance of wikipedia citations (Leila Zia) > 3. Wikimania 2019 disinformation meetup follow-up (Leila Zia) > 4. Upcoming Research Newsletter (special issue on gender gap > research): New papers open for review (Mohammed Sadat Abdulai) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 09:57:15 -0700 > From: Greg <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > Message-ID: > <CAOO9DNuSYzzaVwcdqiWA7pj671z3N43XOSwv6DtW0SxWg= > [email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Hi Kerry, > Those are all very interesting ways to look at this. I was thinking mostly > along the lines of your first bullet point, but I'd be interested in > research in any of those areas. > > Thanks, > Greg > > On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 5:00 AM < > [email protected]> > wrote: > > > Send Wiki-research-l mailing list submissions to > > [email protected] > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > [email protected] > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > [email protected] > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > than "Re: Contents of Wiki-research-l digest..." > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > 1. gender balance of wikipedia citations (Greg) > > 2. Re: gender balance of wikipedia citations (Kerry Raymond) > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Message: 1 > > Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 20:19:18 -0700 > > From: Greg <[email protected]> > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > > Message-ID: > > < > > caoo9dnty+odo5oqrmzeg1nze-kynylwntd6acheytbyegk8...@mail.gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > > > Greetings! > > > > I was looking for information about the gender balance of Wikipedia > > citations and no one I've asked knows of any work on this topic. Do you? > > > > I think this is an important question. > > > > Here's what I've learned so far: > > > > Wikipedia citations are currently in the form of text strings. There is > > also an initiative to place citations in an annotated structured > repository > > (wikicite). I do not know the current status of wikicite or if/when this > > could be used for this inquiry--either to examine all, or a sensible > subset > > of the citations. > > > > My perspective is that understanding the gender balance is necessary and > > urgent. The balance could be better, the same, or worse than the citation > > balances we already know, and the scale of the effect is quite large. > > > > Is this a line of inquiry that the wikimedia/wikicite community is > > interested in pursuing? If so, what is the best way to get started? Does > > the WMF have the resources and interest to look into this matter inhouse? > > > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > > > Greg > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:53:45 +1000 > > From: "Kerry Raymond" <[email protected]> > > To: "'Research into Wikimedia content and communities'" > > <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > > > Could you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by the gender balance of > > citations? > > > > Are you talking about: > > > > * proportion of male vs female authors of the source material used as > > citations in arbitrary articles> > > * the quality/quantity of citations in biography articles of men vs > women? > > * the quality/quantity of citations in articles that are gendered by some > > other criteria (e.g. reader interest, romantic comedy vs action film)? > > > > Kerry > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Wiki-research-l [mailto: > [email protected]] > > On Behalf Of Greg > > Sent: Thursday, 22 August 2019 1:19 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > > > > Greetings! > > > > I was looking for information about the gender balance of Wikipedia > > citations and no one I've asked knows of any work on this topic. Do you? > > > > I think this is an important question. > > > > Here's what I've learned so far: > > > > Wikipedia citations are currently in the form of text strings. There is > > also an initiative to place citations in an annotated structured > repository > > (wikicite). I do not know the current status of wikicite or if/when this > > could be used for this inquiry--either to examine all, or a sensible > subset > > of the citations. > > > > My perspective is that understanding the gender balance is necessary and > > urgent. The balance could be better, the same, or worse than the citation > > balances we already know, and the scale of the effect is quite large. > > > > Is this a line of inquiry that the wikimedia/wikicite community is > > interested in pursuing? If so, what is the best way to get started? Does > > the WMF have the resources and interest to look into this matter inhouse? > > > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > > > Greg > > _______________________________________________ > > Wiki-research-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Subject: Digest Footer > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wiki-research-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > End of Wiki-research-l Digest, Vol 168, Issue 11 > > ************************************************ > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 10:43:51 -0700 > From: Leila Zia <[email protected]> > To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > Message-ID: > <CAK0Oe2uCo70_=ma2b=2d+fvr4GseEVxOP0sh= > [email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Hi Greg, > > A few comments if you're going to go with "proportion of male vs > female authors of the source material used as citations in arbitrary > articles": > > * Please differentiate between sex (female, male, ...) and gender > (woman, man, ...). My understanding from your initial email is that > you want to stay focused on gender, not sex. > > * Unless you have reliable sources about the gender of an author, I > would not recommend trying to predict what the gender is. (As you may > know, this is not uncommon in social media studies, for example, to > predict the gender of the author based on their image or their name. > These approaches introduce biases and social challenges.) > > * Re your question about whether WMF has resources to look into this > question in-house: I can't speak for the whole of WMF, however, I can > share more about the Research team's direction. As part of our future > work, we would like to "help contributors monitor violations of core > content policies and assess information reliability and bias both > granularly and at scale". [1] The question you proposed can fall under > assessing bias in content (considering citations as part of the > content). I expect us to focus first on the piece about violations of > core content policies and information reliability and come back to the > bias question later. As a result, we won't have bandwidth to do your > proposal in-house at the moment. Sorry about that. > > I hope this helps. > > Best, > Leila > > [1] Section 2 of our Knowledge Integrity whitepaper: > > https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Knowledge_Integrity_-_Wikimedia_Research_2030.pdf > > > On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 9:57 AM Greg <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi Kerry, > > Those are all very interesting ways to look at this. I was thinking > mostly > > along the lines of your first bullet point, but I'd be interested in > > research in any of those areas. > > > > Thanks, > > Greg > > > > On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 5:00 AM < > [email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > Send Wiki-research-l mailing list submissions to > > > [email protected] > > > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > > [email protected] > > > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > > [email protected] > > > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > > than "Re: Contents of Wiki-research-l digest..." > > > > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > > > 1. gender balance of wikipedia citations (Greg) > > > 2. Re: gender balance of wikipedia citations (Kerry Raymond) > > > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > Message: 1 > > > Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 20:19:18 -0700 > > > From: Greg <[email protected]> > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > > > Message-ID: > > > < > > > caoo9dnty+odo5oqrmzeg1nze-kynylwntd6acheytbyegk8...@mail.gmail.com> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > > > > > Greetings! > > > > > > I was looking for information about the gender balance of Wikipedia > > > citations and no one I've asked knows of any work on this topic. Do > you? > > > > > > I think this is an important question. > > > > > > Here's what I've learned so far: > > > > > > Wikipedia citations are currently in the form of text strings. There is > > > also an initiative to place citations in an annotated structured > repository > > > (wikicite). I do not know the current status of wikicite or if/when > this > > > could be used for this inquiry--either to examine all, or a sensible > subset > > > of the citations. > > > > > > My perspective is that understanding the gender balance is necessary > and > > > urgent. The balance could be better, the same, or worse than the > citation > > > balances we already know, and the scale of the effect is quite large. > > > > > > Is this a line of inquiry that the wikimedia/wikicite community is > > > interested in pursuing? If so, what is the best way to get started? > Does > > > the WMF have the resources and interest to look into this matter > inhouse? > > > > > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > > > > > Greg > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > Message: 2 > > > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:53:45 +1000 > > > From: "Kerry Raymond" <[email protected]> > > > To: "'Research into Wikimedia content and communities'" > > > <[email protected]> > > > Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > > > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > > > > > Could you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by the gender balance > of > > > citations? > > > > > > Are you talking about: > > > > > > * proportion of male vs female authors of the source material used as > > > citations in arbitrary articles> > > > * the quality/quantity of citations in biography articles of men vs > women? > > > * the quality/quantity of citations in articles that are gendered by > some > > > other criteria (e.g. reader interest, romantic comedy vs action film)? > > > > > > Kerry > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Wiki-research-l [mailto: > [email protected]] > > > On Behalf Of Greg > > > Sent: Thursday, 22 August 2019 1:19 PM > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: [Wiki-research-l] gender balance of wikipedia citations > > > > > > Greetings! > > > > > > I was looking for information about the gender balance of Wikipedia > > > citations and no one I've asked knows of any work on this topic. Do > you? > > > > > > I think this is an important question. > > > > > > Here's what I've learned so far: > > > > > > Wikipedia citations are currently in the form of text strings. There is > > > also an initiative to place citations in an annotated structured > repository > > > (wikicite). I do not know the current status of wikicite or if/when > this > > > could be used for this inquiry--either to examine all, or a sensible > subset > > > of the citations. > > > > > > My perspective is that understanding the gender balance is necessary > and > > > urgent. The balance could be better, the same, or worse than the > citation > > > balances we already know, and the scale of the effect is quite large. > > > > > > Is this a line of inquiry that the wikimedia/wikicite community is > > > interested in pursuing? If so, what is the best way to get started? > Does > > > the WMF have the resources and interest to look into this matter > inhouse? > > > > > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > > > > > Greg > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wiki-research-l mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > Subject: Digest Footer > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wiki-research-l mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > > > End of Wiki-research-l Digest, Vol 168, Issue 11 > > > ************************************************ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wiki-research-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:36:17 -0700 > From: Leila Zia <[email protected]> > To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities > <[email protected]> > Subject: [Wiki-research-l] Wikimania 2019 disinformation meetup > follow-up > Message-ID: > <CAK0Oe2sodYJpkuhSqgo3dtfDr= > [email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Hi, > > This message is for those of you who attended the disinformation > meet-up [0] in Wikimania 2019 [1] or others who may be interested. > > * The notes from our meet-up are now posted in the bottom of the page [0]. > > * I was tasked to see if space.wmflabs.org is the place for us to > continue conversations about this topic. The answer is yes. Thanks to > the help of Elena Lappen, we now have a dedicated subcategory for > disinformation: > https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/c/research/disinformation . Feel > free to subscribe, watch, and/or post new topics if you're involved in > this space. > > * If you are new to this conversation, please read the purpose of the > subcategory at > https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/about-the-disinformation-category/949 > and welcome! :) > > Best, > Leila > > [0] https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2019:Meetups/Disinformation > [1] https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2019:Program > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 22:43:53 +0000 (UTC) > From: Mohammed Sadat Abdulai <[email protected]> > To: Research Into Wikimedia Content and Communities > <[email protected]> > Subject: [Wiki-research-l] Upcoming Research Newsletter (special issue > on gender gap research): New papers open for review > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Hi everyone, > We’re preparing for the August 2019 research newsletter and looking for > contributors. Please take a look at > https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/WRN201908 and add your name next to any > paper you are interested in covering. Our target publication date is on 31 > August 11:59 UTC. As usual, short notes and one-paragraph reviews are most > welcome. > For the August edition, we are planning a special issue focusing mainly > on recent gender gap/gender bias research. (Upcoming special issues topics > may include health and education.) There are about 20 papers from this area > on our todo list which will all be covered in the August issue, either as a > mere list item or - with your help - in form of a more informative writeup > or review. They include: > - Analyzing Gender Stereotyping in Bollywood Movies > > - Breaking the glass ceiling on Wikipedia| journal > > - Breastfeeding, Authority, and Genre: Women's Ethos in Wikipedia and > Blogs > > - Cyberfeminism on Wikipedia: Visibility and deliberation in feminist > Wikiprojects > > - Gender and deletion on Wikipedia > > - Gender imbalance and Wikipedia > > - Gender Markers in Wikipedia Usernames > > - How do students trust Wikipedia? An examination across genders > > - Investigating the Gender Pronoun Gap in Wikipedia > > - It’s Not What You Think: Gender Bias in Information about Fortune > 1000 CEOs on Wikipedia > > - Mapping and Bridging the Gender Gap: An Ethnographic Study of Indian > Wikipedians and Their Motivations to Contribute > > - People Who Can Take It: How Women Wikipedians Negotiate and Navigate > Safety > > - Redressing Gender Inequities on Wikipedia Through an Editathon > > - Similar Gaps, Different Origins? Women Readers and Editors at Greek > Wikipedia > > - Simulation Experiments on (the Absence of) Ratings Bias in Reputation > Systems > > - The Gendered Presentation of Professions on Wikipedia > > - Who Counts as a Notable Sociologist on Wikipedia? Gender, Race, and > the “Professor Test” > > - Who Wants to Read This?: A Method for Measuring Topical > Representativeness in User Generated Content Systems > > - Women and Wikipedia. Diversifying Editors and Enhancing Content > through Library Edit-a-Thons > > Masssly and Tilman Bayer > > [1] Research:Newsletter - Meta[2] WikiResearch (@WikiResearch) on Twitter > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > Wiki-research-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l > > > ------------------------------ > > End of Wiki-research-l Digest, Vol 168, Issue 12 > ************************************************ > _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
