Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pittsburgh came to the conclusion that in scientific papers, links to articles from Wikipedia increasingly appeared, and they recognized this practice as useful for science. The article on the study was published on the SSRN preprints website.

As TJ writes, in the course of the research, scientists instructed graduate students to prepare several articles related to science that were not in Wikipedia. Half of the prepared materials were published in the online encyclopedia, and half - no. After a while, they found that the articles uploaded to Wikipedia had received thousands of views and links in the scientific works of other researchers.

"The results show that the publication of scientific knowledge in accessible sources is an economically effective way of advancing science, which is especially useful for those who do not have access to traditional sources of scientific information," the study authors note.

In this case, according to one of the co-authors of the work, Professor MIT Neil Thompson, the study also showed that "Wikipedia" is not just used by scientists to write articles, but also affects how they write about science.

"Wikipedia" is not just a record of what is happening in science. It helps to shape science, "- quotes Thompson's words The Next Web.