Wikidata from a Research Perspective -- A Systematic Mapping Study of Wikidata

Abstract

Wikidata is one of the most edited knowledge bases which contains structured data. It serves as the data source for many projects in the Wikimedia sphere and beyond. Since its inception in October 2012, it has been increasingly growing in term of both its community and its content. This growth is reflected by an expanding number of research focusing on Wikidata. Our study aims to provide a general overview of the research performed on Wikidata through a systematic mapping study in order to identify the current topical coverage of existing research as well as the white spots which need further investigation. In this study, 67 peer-reviewed research from journals and conference proceedings were selected, and classified into meaningful categories. We describe this data set descriptively by showing the publication frequency, the publication venue and the origin of the authors and reveal current research focuses. These especially include aspects concerning data quality, including questions related to language coverage and data integrity. These results indicate a number of future research directions, such as, multilingualism and overcoming language gaps, the impact of plurality on the quality of Wikidata's data, Wikidata's potential in various disciplines, and usability of user interface.