Mako Hill, Benjamin, and Aaron Shaw. "Studying populations of online communities." (2018).

This chapter advocates for a population-based approach to the study of online communities, moving beyond the common practice of analyzing single communities to examine groups of similar communities. By comparing, for instance, various wikis on a specific topic instead of focusing solely on Wikipedia, researchers can achieve a broader understanding of online community dynamics. The chapter highlights five key benefits of this approach, including enhanced generalizability of findings and the ability to study community-level variables, information diffusion across communities, ecological dynamics, and multilevel community processes. It concludes by addressing the limitations and challenges associated with implementing a population-based research strategy.