Wikimedia and open research: a primer from UKRN

The Wikimedia projects, like Wikipedia and Wikidata, are some of the most visited informational websites on the internet, with around 25 billion page views each month. They help make research widely visible by citing and linking to the original sources. As more research is freely licensed, using Wikimedia platforms can greatly expand its reach. Major information sources, such as search engines and AI chatbots, also use data from Wikipedia and Wikidata.These platforms allow for contextualizing and remixing content. When researchers share figures, code, and data sets, online communities can translate them, combine them with other research, or use them in Wikipedia articles and educational materials. This openness makes the research process more transparent and verifiable. Additionally, Wikimedia projects ensure the long-term preservation and versioning of these shared materials. In this way Wikimedia extends the principles and practices of openness described in other UKRN Primers on Data sharing, Open Access, and Open code and software.