Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Books of Wikipedia

UPDATE: I'm going to take another swipe at the data here. I've found too many places where it looks like citations aren't registering. I'll update when I can. Meanwhile, I'm moving the Secret Santa post to the top again. (Tim)

I've added a new "References" section to work pages, and within that a list of the Wikipedia articles that cite the work.

This feature comes from a complete parse of the English Wikipedia data dump, looking for citations and other references to books.

All told, the data covers 251,911 pages and includes 540,000 citations. They cover some 227,852 works. This is a marked improvement over 2007, when a similar effort found citations to LibraryThing works on only 90,136 pages. It's not perfect. I don't try to capture non-ISBN references in running text.* But it's interesting.** Come talk about it here.

Here are the top 100 books:

Top 100 Most-Frequenty Cited Books in the English Wikipedia
1.2,122Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums
2.1,313Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology (James, Andrew's Disease of the Skin)
3.1,231Air Force Combat Units of World War II
4.1,184Jane's encyclopedia of aviation
5.839British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949
6.764The Ship of the Line: The Development of the Battlefleet, 1650-1850 (The Ship of the line)
7.603Handbook of British Chronology (Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, Volume 2)
8.603Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905
9.591The science-fantasy publishers: A critical and bibliographic history
10.560Civil War High Commands
11.539Wrestling Title Histories
12.514A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament (2 volumes)
13.504The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature
14.464The Dinosauria
15.463The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition
16.460The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
17.452The Canadian directory of Parliament, 1867-1967
18.442All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948
19.419Air Force combat wings : lineage and honors histories, 1947-1977
20.415The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968; Volume 1: Who's Who A-L
21.414The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
22.406Fields of Praise: Official History of the Welsh Rugby Union, 1881-1981
23.403Birmingham City
24.398The New Grove Dictionary of Opera : A-D
25.377Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments
26.371Fitzpatrick's Dermatology In General Medicine (Two Vol. Set)
27.362NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book
28.356The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Animals: A Comprehensive Color Guide to Over 500 Specie
29.348The Pimlico Chronology of British History: From 250, 000 BC to the Present Day
30.347Michigan Place Names (Great Lakes Books)
31.345The Directory of Railway Stations: Details Every Public and Private Passenger Station, Halt, Platform and Stopping Place
32.342The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition
33.341Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand
34.334The Book of Sydney Suburbs
35.331The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club
36.331Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants
37.315Oregon Geographic Names
38.305日本写真家事典―東京都写真美術館所蔵作家 (東京都写真美術館叢書)
39.296U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History
40.294Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns
41.289The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968: A Bibliographic Survey of the Fields of Science Fiction, F
42.281Reed New Zealand Atlas
43.277Music in the Renaissance
44.277Ohio Atlas and Gazetteer (Atlas and Gazetteer)
45.273Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon
46.271The Text of the New Testament an Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual
47.268Blackpool (Complete Record)
48.266The PFA Premier & Football League players' records, 1946-2005
49.261The Oxford Companion to Chess
50.259Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
51.256A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (Comstock Book)
52.251Saints!: Complete Record of Southampton Football Club, 1885-1987
53.247Cassell's Chronology of World History: Dates, Events and Ideas That Made History
54.247The Book of Golden Discs
55.243Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth, 1918-88
56.236Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944
57.236RAF Squadrons: A Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of All RAF Squadrons and Their Antecedents Since 191
58.231Australian Chart Book 1970-1992
59.231The Phoenix Book of International Rugby Records
60.228Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945
61.224US Air Force Air Power Directory
62.222Handbook of Inorganic Chemicals
63.221Rough Guide to World Music Volume Two: Latin and North America, the Caribbean, Asia & the Pacific (Rough Guide Music Gui
64.219In the Nick of Time: Motion Picture Sound Serials
65.215A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago
66.212Encyclopedia of Fishes, Second Edition (Natural World)
67.208The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World
68.205The Kentucky Encyclopedia
69.205Arsenal Who's Who
70.205Guia de Catalunya. Tots els pobles i totes les comarques
71.204Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 1943-45 (Stackpole Military History Series)
72.203Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography
73.203Indie Hits: The Complete UK Independent Charts 1980-1989
74.201The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics
75.201The geographic atlas of New Zealand
76.201The International Rugby Championship 1883-1983
77.200The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae (Virgin Encyclopedias of Popular Music)
78.199Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide
79.198Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft
80.196Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1921 (Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, Vol 2)
81.195The fighting ships of the Rising Sun: The drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945
82.192Economics: Principles in Action
83.191New RHS Dictionary of Gardening
84.190Fungal Families of the World (Cabi Publishing)
85.189The Vertigo Encyclopedia
86.188Dermatology: 2-Volume Set
87.187The National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota: A Guide (Minnesota)
88.187Minding the House: A Biographical Guide to Prince Edward Island MLAs, 1873-1993
89.186Domesday Book: A Complete Translation (Alecto Historical Editions)
90.186The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile (3 Vol Set)
91.185Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern : die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges
92.184The Mountains of England and Wales, Volume 1: Wales
93.183The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld
94.183The Oxford Dictionary of Opera
95.179Generals in Blue Lives of the Union Commanders: Lives of the Union Commanders
96.178The Arkham House Companion: Fifty Years of Arkham House : A Bibliographical History and Collector's Price Guide to Arkha
97.177David and Charles Book of Castles
98.175Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music (Recent Releases)
99.174The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
100.171Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003
Source: LibraryThing.com


Here's the table above, in selectable form, in case you want to put it on your blog:




*The parse used ISBNs, OCLC and LCCN numbers and title/author combinations, in both running text (for ISBNs) and citations. In 2007, I used titles and authors in running text. But this produces some false positives and, basically, would have tied up a server for a week.
**I don't want to start a fight, but I think the winners suggest alarming unevenness. They look like special cases—a bunch of devotees going citation-mad. While everyone knows Wikipedia is driven by passion, the theory is that large numbers and diverse viewpoints tamp down some of the excesses there. That said, I am going to take another crack at the data, hoping some of these effects diminish.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Eric said...

When Lars Aronsson did the same thing 3 years ago, the list was dominated by Pokemon books:
460 0954381157 "Trade unions of the world"
391 0439154049 "The official Pokemon handbook"
389 193020650X "Official Nintendo Pokémon FireRed Version"
387 130206151 (an error for 1930206151, another Pokemon title)
372 1930206585 "Official Nintendo Pokémon Emerald Player's Guide"
357 0761547614 "Prima's Official Pokemon Guide"
346 0002169878 "Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand"
342 1569315604 "Pokemon Adventures, Adventure 3: Saffron Cit..."
334 1930206194 "Super Smash Bros. Melee, Official Guide from..."
334 1569315086 "Pokemon Adventures: Legendary Pokemon, Vol. 2"
333 1569314365 "Pokemon Graphic Novel vol. 3: Electric Pikac..."
332 1930206313 "Gameboy Advance Pokemon Ruby Version and Sap..."
332 1598120026 "Official Nintendo Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkne..."
332 1569318514 "Pokemon Adventures, Volume 7: Yellow Caballe..."

11/24/2009 10:42 AM  

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