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Wikidata Across the Humanities: Datasets, Methodologies, Reuse

We are pleased to invite researchers, scholars, and cultural heritage practitioners such as librarians, archivists, curators, and data stewards to contribute to a Special Collection of the Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) that focuses on Wikidata as both a tool and an object of academic research.

Wikidata, a Wikimedia project founded in 2012, is a knowledge base whose role has become increasingly central in the semantic web, as a source of structured data as well as a vital node of Linked Open Data. While many Digital Humanities (DH) projects are already using Wikidata, most of them only retrieve information without actively adding and/or improving existing data. Furthermore, the bibliography regarding the advantages and challenges of using Wikidata in DH research remains limited.

This Special Collection aims to showcase how Wikidata can be used actively as a platform for integrating humanities datasets, curating them in a lively collaboration with the community of Wikidata editors, analysing them through SPARQL queries and other available data analysis and visualisation tools. The main goal is to offer comprehensive, up-to-date documentation about DH datasets added to Wikidata, detailing the workflows used and insights gained from analysing the data. This aims to equip researchers with effective methodologies for using Wikidata as a tool in DH research. 

We also welcome submissions regarding challenges in using Wikidata for DH projects (e.g., data modelling, reconciliation, and licensing issues), the gadgets and tools developed to make Wikidata editing more efficient and user-friendly, as well as submissions trying to assess how good Wikidata’s coverage of certain topic areas is in quantitative and qualitative terms. Submissions regarding the reuse of Wikidata’s data, especially those that reflect on the impact such reuse has on Wikidata itself, are welcome as well.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • DH projects using Wikidata to store one or more datasets related to humanities subjects, including interdisciplinary approaches.
  • Datasets documenting Wikidata’s coverage of a certain topic in the humanities in quantitative and qualitative terms (e.g., through partial dumps and/or downloads of query results).
  • Reflections on challenges of multilingualism, cultural specificity, or uncertainty in modelling humanities data in Wikidata.
  • Modelling strategies and ontology design tailored to represent complex humanities concepts in Wikidata (e.g., literary works, historical events, artistic attributions).
  • Workflows, gadgets and tools used to ingest or curate data in Wikidata (e.g., OpenRefine, Mix'n'match, QuickStatements, bots).
  • Reconciliation with and integration into Wikidata of external authority files and controlled vocabularies (e.g., VIAF, GND, Getty vocabularies).
  • Contributions that address data provenance, licensing, and long-term sustainability of humanities data in Wikidata.
  • Reuse of Wikidata’s data in DH projects, including interdisciplinary approaches.
  • Connection between Wikibase instances and Wikidata regarding humanities topics.

 

Submission deadline:

  • 15 September 2025 (abstracts due)
  • 26 October 2025 (full papers due, upon abstract acceptance)

Abstract submissions:

If you are interested in submitting an article, please submit an abstract of max. 100 words using this form: https://forms.gle/AD7PmBmjUpaqnzD28

 

We invite submissions of one of the following two types of papers:

  • Short data papers. They contain a concise description of a humanities research object with high reuse potential from research related to Wikidata. These are short (1,000-1,500 words) highly structured narratives and must conform to the data paper template. A data paper does not replace a traditional research article, but rather complements it.
  • Discussion papers. They discuss and illustrate methods, challenges, and limitations in the creation, collection, management, access, processing, or analysis of data in humanities research related to Wikidata, including standards and formats. These are intended to be longer narratives (3,000-5,000 words) and must conform to the discussion paper template.

JOHD provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Authors remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article according to the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence agreement. Authors are encouraged to publish their data in recommended repositories (contact us if you would like to recommend other repositories to be added to our list). Please note that there are Publication Fees for accepted papers, but authors can ask for a waiver if they do not have funding for covering the fees.

 

Special collection guest editorial team:

  • Alan Ang is the Senior Partner Manager for Wikidata at Wikimedia Deutschland. Over the years, Alan has been working with different global institutions, government agencies and Wiki communities to grow the use and reuse of Wikidata especially in underrepresented areas. Apart from giving talks, he has also conducted Wikidata workshops to onboard new users, including institutional users and students, to the project.    
  • Maxime Guénette is a PhD Student in History at Université de Montréal. His research focuses on Roman sacred space and the creation of gazetteers through Linked Open Data. He has been involved in several Digital Humanities projects over the years, such as the International (Digital) Dura-Europos Archive and the Digital and Collaborative Edition of the Greek Anthology, as well as being an active Wikidata editor. https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2076-1220
  • Dr Sabine von Mering is a biologist and data scientist at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, working towards opening up and linking natural history collection data, and contextualising knowledge. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on research expeditions, marginalised groups in knowledge production (e.g. women in natural history), and networks of collection agents. She is an active advocate for Wikidata as a research tool and has conducted Wikidata workshops and edit-a-thons.  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2982-7792
  • Camillo Carlo Pellizzari di San Girolamo is a PhD Student in Classics at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa and a Wikimedian. He studies Greek rhetorical exercises and the use of Wikidata in the digital humanities and the GLAM sector, with a focus on the interaction between Wikidata and library authority files. He is an active Wikidata editor, and has also conducted Wikidata workshops to onboard new users to the project. He is a member of the DARIAH-EU DHwiki Working Group. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2699-1693

 

Special collection coordination:

Andrea Farina is a PhD Candidate in Digital Humanities at King’s College London, supported by a UKRI scholarship from the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP). He holds degrees in Classics (University of Milan) and Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (University of Pavia). His doctoral research focuses on PrevNet, the first database of preverbs, with an emphasis on Ancient Greek and Latin verbs of motion. Andrea is committed to advancing open access research and promotes data-driven methodologies for the study of the Ancient World through initiatives such as Data Driven Classics (King’s College London) and scholar contributions. He serves as Associate Editor and Social Media Editor for the Journal of Open Humanities Data and is the creator and convenor of the Data in Historical Linguistics international seminar series. He is a member of the Computational Humanities Research Group at King’s and of the Regional Advisory Committee of the Global Council for Anthropological Linguistics for the European area.

 

Special collection scientific committee:

Articles