PIDs, Wikidata, and Notability on Wikipedia

Abstract

On Wikipedia [EN], biographies of scientists must meet the criteria for general notability, notability for people, notability for authors, or notability for academics. These criteria require significant coverage in independent, reliable, secondary sources and/or sourced evidence that the person has contributed to changing the field or research or the genre of creative work. Biographies on Wikipedia are assigned a Wikidata entry and these biographies often include a footer linking to other “Authority control databases.” Along with Wikidata, these databases assign the person a persistent identifier (PID). These PIDs may predate the person’s notability and the creation date of their Wikipedia entry. Likewise, as with Wikidata, many of these PIDs have a lower bar for “notability” or rely on different concepts for authority. In some cases, such as ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), the PID may only be created by the person themselves. Although PIDs may not be evidence of notability, one might assume that a person with PIDs would be on track for meeting the English Wikipedia criteria for notability. This exploratory study, looks at a short list of notable and likely notable scientists (recipients and finalists of the Indianapolis Prize) to identify the prevalence of three PIDs (Wikidata, LCN, and ORCID). We seek to better understand the role of PIDs in the development of a scientist’s public reputation. Do the prevalence of these identifiers precede the creation of Wikipedia entries? Do these identifiers multiply after Wikipedia entries are created? Do PIDs matter for Wikipedia?