Wikipedia Research Skill

Extract verifiable research from Wikipedia with full citation provenance, entity relationships, timelines, and verification reports for AI consumption.

Why Use This Skill?

Complete Research Workflow

Phase 1: Extract

from scripts.citation_extractor import CitationExtractor

extractor = CitationExtractor()
research = extractor.extract_article("Subject_Name")

Phase 2: Verify

from scripts.source_verifier import SourceVerifier

verifier = SourceVerifier()

# Verify all citations (DOI, PMID, URL checks)
citation_results = verifier.verify_citations(research['citations'])

# Detect inconsistencies
inconsistencies = verifier.detect_inconsistencies(research)

# Extract Wikipedia uncertainty flags ({{citation needed}}, etc.)
flags = verifier.extract_uncertainty_flags(wikitext)

# Generate verification report
report = verifier.generate_verification_report(
    research, citation_results, inconsistencies, flags
)

Phase 3: Enrich

from scripts.entity_extractor import EntityExtractor

entity_extractor = EntityExtractor()

# Extract people, organizations, publications mentioned
entities = entity_extractor.extract_entities(research)

# Map relationships (collaborators, employers, etc.)
relationships = entity_extractor.extract_relationships(
    research, entities, "Subject Name"
)

# Build chronological timeline
timeline = entity_extractor.build_timeline(research)

# Generate knowledge graph
graph = entity_extractor.generate_knowledge_graph(
    "Subject Name", entities, relationships, timeline
)

Phase 4: Output

from scripts.research_collector import ResearchCollector

collector = ResearchCollector()
collector.save_research({
    **research,
    'verification': report,
    'knowledge_graph': graph
}, "output.json")

Output Schema (Enhanced)

{
  "article": {
    "title": "Subject Name",
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...",
    "revision_id": "1234567890",
    "extracted_at": "2026-02-03T10:30:00Z"
  },
  "sections": [{
    "heading": "Section Name",
    "content": "Text content...",
    "claims": [{
      "text": "Specific factual claim",
      "citation_ids": ["ref_1", "ref_2"],
      "confidence": 0.92
    }]
  }],
  "citations": [{
    "id": "ref_1",
    "type": "article-journal",
    "title": "Paper Title",
    "author": [{"family": "Smith", "given": "John"}],
    "DOI": "10.1234/example",
    "PMID": "12345678",
    "URL": "https://...",
    "issued": {"date-parts": [[2024, 1, 15]]}
  }],
  "verification": {
    "verification_summary": {
      "total_citations": 15,
      "verified_count": 12,
      "verification_score": 0.80,
      "dead_links": 2,
      "archived_recoveries": 1,
      "reliability_assessment": "high"
    },
    "citation_details": {
      "ref_1": {
        "status": "verified",
        "doi_valid": true,
        "pmid_valid": true,
        "url_accessible": true
      }
    },
    "inconsistencies": [],
    "uncertainty_flags": [{
      "section": "Early Life",
      "type": "citation_needed",
      "context": "..."
    }]
  },
  "knowledge_graph": {
    "nodes": [
      {"id": "Subject", "type": "subject"},
      {"id": "Harvard", "type": "organization"},
      {"id": "Collaborator Name", "type": "person"}
    ],
    "edges": [
      {"source": "Subject", "target": "Harvard", "type": "employment"},
      {"source": "Subject", "target": "Collaborator", "type": "collaborator"}
    ],
    "timeline": [
      {"date": "2010", "type": "education", "description": "PhD from..."},
      {"date": "2016", "type": "award", "description": "Received..."}
    ]
  },
  "provenance": {
    "source": "Wikipedia",
    "extraction_method": "MediaWiki API + wikitext parsing",
    "skill_version": "2.0",
    "verification_performed": true
  },
  "metadata": {
    "total_citations": 15,
    "verified_citations": 12,
    "total_claims": 24,
    "entities_extracted": 8,
    "timeline_events": 6,
    "source_quality": {
      "rating": "A",
      "score": 0.85
    }
  }
}

Scripts Reference

Verification Features

Citation Validation

verifier = SourceVerifier()
result = verifier.verify_citations(citations)

# Each citation gets:
# - status: 'verified', 'accessible', 'dead_link', 'archived'
# - doi_valid: True/False (checked against doi.org)
# - pmid_valid: True/False (checked against PubMed)
# - archive_url: Wayback Machine fallback if dead

Uncertainty Detection

Automatically flags Wikipedia uncertainty templates:

• {{citation needed}} - Unsourced claim
• {{disputed}} - Contested information
• {{original research}} - May lack sources
• {{outdated}} - Information may be stale
• {{who}} / {{when}} - Vague attribution

Inconsistency Detection

Cross-checks claims within the research:

• Date conflicts (PhD year differs between sections)
• Name variations
• Contradictory facts

Entity & Relationship Extraction

Entity Types

Relationship Types

Timeline Construction

Automatically extracts chronological events:

{
  "timeline": [
    {"date": "2005", "type": "education", "description": "BSc from University of Manchester"},
    {"date": "2010", "type": "education", "description": "PhD from Humboldt University"},
    {"date": "2011", "type": "publication", "description": "Published protein structure paper"},
    {"date": "2016", "type": "award", "description": "Received Overton Prize"}
  ]
}

Quality Metrics

Source Quality (Admiralty Code)

Confidence Scoring

Method: Additive heuristic based on citation metadata presence.

Each claim's confidence is the average score of its supporting citations, calculated as:

Base score:                 0.50
+ DOI present:             +0.20  (indicates peer-reviewed)
+ PMID present:            +0.15  (indexed in PubMed)
+ ISBN present:            +0.10  (published book)
+ URL present:             +0.05  (verifiable link)
+ Author info present:     +0.10  (attributable)
+ Publication venue named: +0.05  (traceable)
─────────────────────────────────
Maximum possible:           1.00

Typical scores:

Limitations of this approach:

• Does NOT verify that the source actually supports the claim
• Does NOT perform semantic analysis of source content
• Assumes DOI ≈ peer-reviewed (not always true for preprints)
• No weighting by journal reputation or citation count

For higher-confidence verification: Use source_verifier.py to validate DOIs/PMIDs exist, then manually verify claim-source alignment for critical facts.

Best Practices

1. Always verify - Run source_verifier on all research
2. Check uncertainty flags - Wikipedia often marks weak areas
3. Build timelines - Chronology reveals inconsistencies
4. Extract relationships - Context matters for understanding
5. Save revision_id - Wikipedia changes; enable reproducibility
6. Use DOIs - Most reliable citation identifiers
7. Check archives - Dead links often have Wayback copies

Reference Documentation

• references/output_schema.md - Complete JSON schema
• references/api_reference.md - Wikipedia API details
• references/citation_templates.md - Parsing guide