Topical and Structural Linkage in Wikipedia

We explore statistical properties of links within Wikipedia. We demonstrate that a simple algorithm can predict many of the links that would normally be added to a new article, without considering the topic of the article itself. We then explore a variant of topic-oriented PageRank, which can effectively identify topical links within existing articles, when compared with manual judgments of their topical relevance. Based on these results, we suggest that linkages within Wikipedia arise from a combination of structural requirements and topical relationships.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: ECIR
• Authors: Kelly Y. Itakura, Charles L. A. Clarke, Shlomo Geva, Andrew Trotman, Wei Chi Huang
• Keywords: ECIR 2011, Information Technology, Statistical Properties, Topical Relevance, Wikipedia