What Does “a Reliable Source” Mean?

Abstract

Purpose/Thesis: The paper aims to describe the types and structure of references to different sources as cited by the selected Polish Wikipedia articles from the category of people related to the Austrian Partition and all the categories below. Approach/Methods: The research data consisted of references from 50 randomly selected articles from Polish Wikipedia, including 1007 citations and 758 references. The references have been gathered, processed, and analyzed mainly employing R language. They have been categorized, and then the descriptive statistics for the chosen elements have been provided and analyzed. Results and conclusions: The study shows that the majority of sources used in the research sample were of primary nature. Consequently, it demonstrates that the analyzed articles about historical persons can be regarded more as a product of research than simple imitative work to a certain extent. Polish Wikipedians mainly utilized government directories and newspaper or magazine articles, often from digital libraries. Secondary sources, on the other hand, chiefly consisted of books, webpages, and book sections. The structure of references was diverse, and bibliographic descriptions sometimes lacked important elements. The findings confirm difficulties in analyzing sources in Wikipedia. Moreover, they support the need for researching different editions and subject areas of the largest online encyclopedia. Research limitations: Due to the exploratory character of research, which focuses on references from selected articles about historical persons from Poland, one should not readily extrapolate its results to other parts of Polish Wikipedia. The research sample only comprised citations and references, which were collected at one specific point of time. Additionally, the categorization of references has been done by a single researcher, and intercoder reliability has not been checked. Originality/Value: Most of the studies into sources used in Wikipedia articles have been limited to its English edition so far. Moreover, articles about historical persons in this encyclopedia have not been analyzed from the perspective of utilized sources, their types, and reference patterns. The paper broadens the understanding of sources usage in Wikipedia by focusing on the Polish edition of the encyclopedia.