By Arno Simons, Wolfgang Kircheis, Marion Schmidt, Martin Potthast, and Benno Stein. Robert K. Merton , a famous American sociologist, who studied the reward system in science. Wikipedia increasingly shapes the public understanding of science. As one of the most visited websites globally, it serves as a go-to resource for millions seeking information on scientific topics. In addition, search engines rely on Wikipedia's comprehensive science content for direct responses, while Large Language Models leverage it as essential training data. Because of Wikipedia’s central role in today’s knowledge economy, scientists and their institutions are increasingly seeking recognition on the platform. At a time when public recognition is more important to scientists and their careers than ever before, not being mentioned on Wikipedia can be a real issue, given that the platform significantly shapes the public's view of science. Wikipedians and scientists alike have already recognized the
By Christine Kuo. Have you ever learned about something new, and then curious to learn more or perhaps concerned about what you just learned, tried to search for information about it? Were you able to find the answers you were looking for? New technologies like gene editing are emerging and becoming commercially approved in some countries like the United States. Research has shown that people have varying levels of knowledge about gene editing, and that some are concerned about the technology. Some organizations seek to provide answers to these questions by hosting “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ) webpages, but to date no research has compared the questions featured on these webpages to actual questions from the public. Our group at the University of British Columbia Animal Welfare Program set out to see what questions people had about gene editing. Unsplash.com Using an online platform, we asked 338 survey participants in the United States what questions they had about gene edit