During the Wikimania 2025 conference, the results of scientific research on the comparative analysis of Wikipedia articles on climate change in different language editions were presented. By leveraging open datasets, the study assessed the quality of articles and compared their popularity in various languages. For example, an analysis of over one billion internal links (wikilinks) on Wikipedia enabled the identification of the most frequently cited articles in each language edition.
Presentation recording:
The aim of the study was to highlight differences in the availability, depth, and popularity of climate change information between Wikipedia’s language editions. The research employed several approaches to identify articles related to climate change: linking to relevant Wikidata items, analyzing membership in thematic categories, and including articles connected through internal and external link networks. Combining these methods allowed the researchers to compile a more complete and diverse dataset for further analysis.
By applying multiple metrics to evaluate both quality and popularity, the study identified information gaps, varying patterns of editorial engagement, and uneven levels of public interest in this topic across linguistic communities. The findings may contribute to a better understanding of the global information landscape on climate change and to ensuring equal access to high-quality information.
The presentation, titled “Climate Change Knowledge on Wikipedia: A Cross-Language Comparative Analysis”, was delivered on August 8, 2025, during the third day of Wikimania 2025. Authors of the research: Dr. Włodzimierz Lewoniewski, Prof. Dariusz Jemielniak.
Wikimania is an annual conference dedicated to all the open-access knowledge projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation – Commons, MediaWiki, Meta-Wiki, Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikinews, Wikipedia, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary – with conferences, discussions, meetings, trainings and workshops. Hundreds of volunteers and Free Knowledge leaders from all over the world meet to discuss various topics, propose new projects and approaches, and exchange ideas. This year’s conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya, from August 6-9, 2025, in a hybrid format (onsite and remote). Over 2,300 people from 135 countries participated in the event. Conference website: wikimania.wikimedia.org.