Let’s get started

Posted on by Anne-Marie Scott

Trusted more than the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph (Jordan, 2014), Wikipedia receives some 17 billion pageviews from 500 million visitors each month and is estimated to be 1,500 times more cost effective than traditional ways of spreading information, such as presenting at academic conferences (Heilman, Masukume, Kipersztok, Shafee and Diptanshu, 2017).

A 2016 study found that 87.5% of students reported using Wikipedia for their academic work (Selwyn and Gorard, 2016) so for many students this will be the first port-of-call when engaging with new topics.

The reason being that when we explain these topics to students – why wouldn’t they look them up on Wikipedia? And what they tend to find is American examples, old citations, pages conflating theory with practice etc.

For this workshop, we have already identified articles that need work to allow you to make edits and improvements in a relatively short amount of time. The edits are mostly small and the articles are on many different topics:

Add an image

√ 1) DONE Moray House School of Education – Old Nursery School building 
Image file 

2) New College Edinburgh – Library the inserted image could be improved with a caption
Image file

3) Montgomery railway station
Image file

√ 4) DONE Clocaenog forest
Image file

5) Cytir Mawr
Image file

6) Aber Taf (the Taf estuary) the inserted image could be improved with a caption
Image file

√ 7) DONE Blue Pool Bay
Image file

8) Bodfach
Image file

9) Cwm Twrch the inserted image could be improved with a caption
Image file

10) Three Castles Walk, Monmouthshire
Image file

11) Guignolet
Image file

12) Frumenty
Image file

√ 13) DONE Museum d’Histoire Naturelle Aix-en-Provence
Image file

14) Deufringen
Image file 

√ 15) DONE Ergenzingen
Image file

16) Fernsehen aus Berlin
Image file

17) Achttienhoven, Utrecht
Image file 

18) Uttershill Castle
Image file

19) Penkill Castle
Image files:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_well_at_Penkill_Castle_(geograph_5171246).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winter_at_Penkill_Castle_(geograph_5171244).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Bell_Scott_-_The_Firth_of_Clyde_from_Penkill_Castle.jpg

20) Megginch Castle

Image files:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doocot,_Megginch_Castle._-_geograph.org.uk_-_214392.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Megginch_Castle_gatehouse_-_geograph.org.uk_-_377931.jpg

21) Meggernie Castle
Image file

22) Luffness Castle
Image file

23) Lennox Tower
Image file 

24) Kinord Castle
Image file

25) Magneto – medical applications
Image file
Citation could be added also: https://copac.jisc.ac.uk/id/30666449?style=html&title=treatise%20on%20localized%20electrization%2C%20and%20its%20applications

√ 26) DONE Kuopio

There is an image request in the Talk page for a rännikatu see – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Kuopio
Image file

27) Bogoria, Poland
Image of the notable church

28) Sula (island) the inserted image could be improved with a caption
Image file

 

Add a citation

1) Jane Loudon, Horticultural writings

2) Pregnancy over aged 50

Citation(s) needed for paragraph on paternal age, beginning “Men also experience a decline in fertility as they age…”, in particular the sentences on genetic defects and paternal age effect.

  • Nybo Andersen, Anne-Marie; Urhoj, Stine Kjaer (02 2017). “Is advanced paternal age a health risk for the offspring?”. Fertility and Sterility. 107 (2): 312–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.12.019
  • Malaspina, Dolores; Gilman, Caitlin; Kranz, Thorsten Manfred (2015-6). “Paternal age and mental health of offspring”. Fertility and Sterility. 103 (6): 1392–1396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.04.015
  • Lawson, Gerald; Fletcher, Richard (2014-10). “Delayed fatherhood”. The Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care. 40 (4): 283–288. 
  • Hubert, A.; Szöke, A.; Leboyer, M.; Schürhoff, F. (2011-6). “[Influence of paternal age in schizophrenia]”. L’Encephale. 37 (3): 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.791

3) Orthodontic headgear

Missing citation for eye injuries in Adverse Effects:

  • Travess, H., Roberts-Harry, D., & Sandy, J. (2004). Orthodontics. Part 6: Risks in orthodontic treatment. British Dental Journal, 196, 71. doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.4810891 https://www.nature.com/articles/4810891

4) Lincoln Cathedral Library – citation needed for point that the Thornton Manuscript was a source for Malory’s Morte d’Arthur

Two sources supporting this statement are:

5) Scandinavia

6) Transfusion-related acute lung injury

7) Malabsorption – diagnosis section needs citation about malabsorbed nutrients and anaemia associated with vitamin B12 deficiency

Citations:

8) Adjuvant therapy – for metastatic melanoma

  • One citation covering two of the drugs mentioned and supporting that statement about short and long term effectiveness PMID: 10623706 DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2000.18.1.158

√ 19) DONE Dehydroascorbic acid – citation needed for sentence “It is actively imported into the endoplasmic reticulum of cells via glucose transporters”

  • Citation: PMID: 9405334 Ascorbate function and metabolism in the human erythrocyte

10) Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia – treatment

11) Community acquired pneumonia – epidemiology – clarify statement to indicate country and year of finding

12) Atypical pneumonia

13) SARS

14) Acute bronchitis

√ 115) DONE Status Quo bias

16) Scurvy – missing citation for Merchant Shipping Act

17) Niacin 

18) Pox party 

  • Citation needed to support statemtne that “In the case of chickenpox, its connection to shingles was unknown for a long time.”
  • Relevant citation: https://doi-org/10.1093/infdis/166.Supplement_1.S1

 

Improve an existing article

1) Literature Review

  • This needs improvements – one aspect could be to add information about different types of reviews and their different aims
  • Grant MJ, Booth A. A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Info Libr J. 2009;26(2):91-108.
  • Levac D, Colquhoun H, O’Brien KK. Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Implement Sci. 2010;5:69.

2) Medications used in dentistry and periodontics 

  • The references list is currently a bullet list rather than the generated reference list. An improvement could be adding these as inline citations to create a linked reference list.

3) Mosby’s Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions 

  • More information could be added to this stub article.
  • A review of the 7th edition: Curtis, Lindsey (2006). “Mosby’s Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions (7th edition)”. Reference Reviews. 20 (7): 40–40. doi:10.1108/09504120610691718
  • There is also a pocket edition. Information about this could also be added to the article. A review of the pocket edition: Evans, Nicola. “Mosby’s Pocket Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions – 7th Ed.(Book Review).” Nursing Standard 28, no. 1 (2013): 30.

4) Hip replacement (animal)

  • This article needs improving, in particular the section on ‘Variations in vets’ views’. A simple improvement is changing the word ‘vet’ to ‘veterinarian’. You could also edit the section to remove ‘weasel words’.

5) Insomnia – improve the article by including something from more up to date guidelines e.g. in the diagnosis section

6) Cervical cancer screening – improve the article by adding a new section on barriers to uptake of cervical cancer screening

  • Possible sources:
  • Akinlotan M, Bolin JN, Helduser J, Ojinnaka C, Lichorad A, McClellan D. Cervical Cancer Screening Barriers and Risk Factor Knowledge Among Uninsured Women. Journal of Community Health. 2017 Aug;42(4):770–8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/28155005/
  • Glasgow RE, Whitlock EP, Valanis BG, Vogt TM. Barriers to mammography and pap smear screening among women who recently had neither, one or both types of screening. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2000 Sep;22(3):223–8. https://academic.oup.com/abm/article-lookup/doi/10.1007/BF02895117
  • Liebermann EJ, VanDevanter N, Hammer MJ, Fu MR. Social and Cultural Barriers to Women’s Participation in Pap Smear Screening Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Latin American and Caribbean Countries: An Integrative Review. J Transcult Nurs. 2018 Jan 1; DOI: 10.1177/1043659618755424

7) HPV vaccines

 

We can fix that. We can edit.

The task

Normally we would allow 60-90 minutes for Wikipedia training and another 1-3hrs for researching, synthesising and writing new and improved pages. Today, we have a little less time but improving Wikipedia can be done in minutes.

  1. Select an article to work on.
  2. Go to the Event Dashboard and assign the article to you (it’s important we know who is working on these articles so two editors do not create an edit conflict when they go to the save the page at the same time).
  3. Now you have reserved that article, you can improve it in a number of ways.

Copy-editing the article.

  1. Click Edit at the top of any page to access the Visual Editor interface.
  2. Edit the article to improve its grammar, punctuation, spelling, and accessibility.
  3. Click Publish changes in the top right of the screen when you are finished editing.
  4. Add a short edit summary to describe the changes you just made (e.g. corrected typo).
  5. Click the Publish changes to save your changes.

Adding a citation

Citations are the most important part of any Wikipedia page and a great way to update an out-of-date page with more recent, credible information. More details on adding references with Visual Editor can be found here.

  1. Click Edit to access the Visual Editor interface.
  2. Add your statement to the Wikipedia page.
  3. Place your cursor at the end of the statement and click Cite on the editing toolbar at the top of the page.
  4. Paste the url web address, DOI code, PMID or ISBN number into the Automatic citation box and click Generate. This will create the citation automatically.
  5. Click Insert to place the citation into the article.
  6. Click Publish changes to save the page with a short edit summary like added citation.
  7. Click Publish changes save your citation and auto-generate a reference at the bottom of the page.

Adding links to and from other Wikipedia pages.

  1. Click Edit to access the Visual Editor interface.
  2. Highlight the text you wish to wiki link.
  3. Click the chain link dropdown menu on the editing toolbar at the top of the page. This will search Wikipedia pages for the text you have highlighted.
  4. Select the correct Wikipedia page.
  5. The text will now turn blue if a page exists with the title of the text you have highlighted or red if it can’t find a page.
  6. Click Publish changes to save the page with a short edit summary like added link(s).
  7. Click Publish changes again to save your edit.

Wikipedia is based on wiki links leading from one article to a nother. If a concept is mentioned more than once in an article then it should be only be linked the first time it is mentioned. The problem comes when pages that should have a link… don’t.

The Find Link tool (video demo) does a search for article titles/keywords throughout Wikipedia to highlight those articles that mention the search term and therefore ought to be linked to. This can be the difference between articles that are easy to find and those that aren’t. And therefore receive more pageviews as a result. Particularly if the high traffic pages link to your page .

Adding images.

  1. Click Edit to access the Visual Editor interface.
  2. Place your cursor where on the page you wish your image to appear.
  3. Click Insert at the top of Visual Editor and select Insert Media from the dropdown menu.
  4. Type a keyword in the Insert Media search bar. This will look in the 46 million openly-licensed media files on Wikimedia Commons. Alternatively you can use the Upload tab to add your own openly-licensed image.
  5. Click Use this image and type a caption.
  6. Click Insert to add the image to the page.
  7. Drag the bottom left corner of the image to resize it.
  8. Click Publish changes to save your image with an edit summary of ‘added an image’. Click Publish changes again.

If you want to source an open image for the page then try:

Adding a citation with the Citation Hunt tool: ‘Whack-a-mole‘ for citations!

Citation Hunt is a fun tool that has been described as ‘Whack-a-mole‘ for citations.

Find out how to use it in our Wiki Games site.

Adding an Open Access link to a reference using the OAbot tool.

Find out how to use it in our Wiki Games site.

Video walkthrough of the main Visual Editor elements

There are more details on how to edit with Visual Editor in our Wiki Basics and the Visual Editor userguide.