The impact on citation performance of referencing a scholarly article in Wikipedia

Last registered on August 18, 2022
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The impact on citation performance of referencing a scholarly article in Wikipedia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009937
Initial registration date
August 17, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 18, 2022, 3:21 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Ramiro H. Gálvez
Affiliation
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-09-01
End date
2025-12-31
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
online visibility, Wikipedia, citations analysis, online field experiment
JEL code(s)
O31, O32, O33
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Understanding the creation and flow of knowledge is a topic of great concern both in academia and in policymaking. Citations are known to strongly influence researchers’ career paths, salaries, and reputations, as well as their departments’ and universities’ rankings. However, many factors other than scientific merit are known to affect citation trends. Here, we describe in detail a field experiment which aims to measure the impact of one factor that may affect citation trends: online visibility (i.e., overall online presence of a given article). Concretely, we designed and will run an online field experiment in which randomly selected articles from seven fields of research will be added to the English version of Wikipedia (treatment group), while others with similar characteristics will not (control group). Having done this, we will keep track of the evolution of different metrics capturing the citation performances of the articles comprising both the treatment and control groups. By exogenously varying the degree of online visibility of these articles, we will measure causal effect on citation performance of online visibility. We expect to see significant differences between both groups.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gálvez, Ramiro H.. 2022. "The impact on citation performance of referencing a scholarly article in Wikipedia." AEA RCT Registry. August 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9937-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Being assigned to the treatment group implies that the article will be referenced in a Wikipedia page.
Intervention Start Date
2022-09-01
Intervention End Date
2022-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Citation counts
Dispersion of received citations across fields of research
Alternative metrics
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Number of Wikipedia references to the articles
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We designed and will run an online field experiment in which randomly selected articles from seven fields of research will be added to the English version of Wikipedia, while others with similar characteristics will not. Having done this, we will keep track of the evolution of different metrics capturing the citation performances of the articles comprising both the treatment and control groups. By exogenously varying the degree of online visibility of these articles, we will measure causal effect on citation performance of online visibility. We expect to see significant differences between both groups.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Set of three articles related to an already existent reference in Wikipedia
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
980 sets of three articles
Sample size: planned number of observations
2700 individual articles
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
980 conform the treatment group. 1960 conform the control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan