Biowikinet: A Multilingual Network Dataset Revealing Biodiversity Knowledge Gaps

<b>BioWikiNet</b> is a multilingual dataset that links Wikipedia articles on biological taxa to the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, enabling cross-lingual analysis of biodiversity knowledge representation. Based on the January 2025 Wikipedia snapshot, it covers 11 major language editions (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish), comprising 1,266,215 articles linked to 751,843 taxonomic entities.The dataset includes:<br>A core metadata file (`biowikinet_core.csv`) containing article-level metrics: pageviews (2024), edit history, link statistics, and derived indices including SCI (Species Connectivity Index), core index, and excess focus.A structured JSON file of article nodes (`nodes.json`), each annotated with its Wikidata entity ID, taxonomic rank, GBIF ID, language, and key visibility metrics.A nested JSON file of 6,955,289 taxonomic hyperlinks—links (`edges.json`) to other biological taxa, structured as adjacency lists.This dataset is derived from:<br>Wikipedia content (primarily CC-BY-SA 4.0, with some older content under CC-BY-SA 3.0^*) - article metadata and link structuresWikidata (CC0) - taxonomic entity identifiersGBIF Backbone Taxonomy &lt;https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei&gt; accessed via GBIF.org (CC0) - taxonomic classification^*Wikipedia transitioned to CC-BY-SA 4.0 in June 2023. Content edited after this date is licensed under 4.0, while earlier contributions remain under 3.0 (both are ShareAlike-compatible).<b>Applications</b>: The dataset supports research in conservation culturomics, biodiversity informatics, multilingual knowledge equity, and AI/NLP applications. It enables detection of taxonomic knowledge gaps, cultural biases in species representation, and language-specific patterns in biodiversity engagement.BioWikiNet itself is distributed under CC-BY 4.0 license. When reusing this dataset, attribution to BioWikiNet is required. Any reuse of underlying Wikipedia content must comply with its respective CC-BY-SA license terms.When citing this dataset, please use: Shinya Uryu (2025). BioWikiNet: A Multilingual Network Dataset Revealing Biodiversity Knowledge Gaps. Figshare. &lt;https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29431577&gt;<br>