Circadian patterns on Wikipedia edits

Abstract

Cyclic behaviour and circadian patterns emerging from the editing activity of Wikipedia are hereby considered. Such patterns affect many human activities, mobility routes, energy storage and synchronization, among others. Because the editing of Wikipedia is the result of a voluntary process made by many independent human beings, the question about the signature of such circadian patterns on such data is not straightforward. We however show in this work that Wikipedia editing presents well defined periodic patterns with respect to daily, weekly and monthly activity. In addition, we also show the periodic nature of the number of inter-event in time. The results of our work shed some light on the activity scheduling present in our society, contributing to the circadian patterns understanding.