Chinese-Language Literature About Wikipedia: A Meta-Analysis of Academic Search Engine Result Pages

Abstract

This paper presents a webometric analysis of the academic search engine result pages (SERPs) of the Chinese-language term of "Wikipedia" across major Chinese-speaking regions of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Because of the academic outcome, the findings can also be interpreted for further meta-analysis, or "research about research", of the Wikipedia research in Chinese-language literatures. The findings cover the results from four major search platforms: CNKI Scholar, Google Scholar China, Google Scholar Hong Kong and Google Scholar Taiwan. Cross tabulation of the results shows the major institutions (journals and academic departments) and scholarly archives for Chinese-language Wikipedia research. The findings suggest that there exists a divide between mainland Chinese academic sources/search results on one hand, and Hong Kong/Taiwanese ones on the other. Meta-analysis based on academic SERPs have implications for identifying the gaps and potentials in internationalization of Wikipedia research.

Keywords: Chinese Internet; Chinese research on Wikipedia; academic search engines; academic databases