Expert outreach

We are working with scientists, scholars, learned societies and funders to help experts improve Wikipedia and its sister projects, bringing that expertise to the widest possible public.

Many scholarly societies are, like Wikimedia UK, registered charities whose mission includes informing and educating the general public. These common goals are advanced with internal training events, publications and public events. This work complements WMUK's partnerships with galleries, libraries, archives and museums as well as its support for higher education.

Brochures

We are preparing print brochures to show researchers and public engagement professionals how Wikimedia can magnify the impact of their work. Improvements and suggestions are welcome.

• Wikimedia as a public engagement tool for scientists
• Wikimedia as a public engagement tool for the arts and humanities

Frequently Asked Questions

A separate page answers questions we have been asked by potential expert contributors.

Jisc Ambassador

From July 2013 to March 2014, Jisc and Wikimedia UK are jointly supporting a project to encourage a range of audiences (librarians, teachers, researchers and students) within learning and research to engage with Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia projects. Follow the link for more details.

Examples

This list includes collaborations with public outcomes; many more partnerships are presently being negotiated.

World War I Centenary

A partnership between Wikimedia UK and the JISC brought academics together with Wikimedians for an editathon in London on 16 June 2012.

Medical outreach

On 31 August 2012, there was a WikiProject Medicine editor outreach event in Coventry, examining how medical professionals can improve the quality of Wikipedia's articles.

The Geological Society

A wiki training workshop for geoscientists took place on Friday 30th March 2012 in London, also including members of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Medical Research Council

WMUK is running workshops with the Medical Research Council to train MRC staff and MRC-funded researchers to contribute to the Wikimedia projects.

The Institute of Physics

The WMUK collaboration with the Institute of Physics has so far produced a small training workshop at the IoP offices (blogpost) and a feature article for the Physics World magazine and site (free registration required).

Cancer Research UK

We have provided two events at the CRUK offices in London to train scientists and science communicators to improve Wikipedia articles related to cancer. They have formed a monthly Wikipedia group, who remain in touch with Wikimedia UK.

ARKive

In the Summer of 2011, Wikimedia UK collaborated with the charity Wildscreen to improve Wikipedia's articles on threatened species. This involved using some of the text content from Wildscreen's ARKive project on Wikipedia. There is still an opportunity to contribute to the project by improving target articles: see the project page.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

A group of scientists at this genome research institute are Wikimedia UK volunteers, and have published a guide for expert contributors in PLoS Computational Biology. They have also taken part in training events for other scientists. They include Darren Logan and Alex Bateman, who have explained Wikipedia culture and policies in a Nature letter and article and, from Logan, a guest post to the Wellcome Trust blog (see below).

Conferences and presentations

WMUK volunteers are using conferences and other events to address researchers:

• Andy Mabbett ran an event at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London.
• Martin Poulter spoke on "Wikipedia: Elitism for the Masses" at the University of Leicester's IDEoGRAMS interdisciplinary seminar.
• Andy Mabbett spoke at a meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group on "how archaeologists can use Wikipedia to disseminate their work to both specialist & popular audiences"
• Martin Poulter presented at a Social Media Lunch for scholarly societies in London, December 2011
• Darren Logan presented at an event for researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development in November 2011, arguing that Wikipedia "provides experts an unprecedented opportunity to engage, educate and influence on a global scale."
• Martin Poulter spoke to researchers at an ESRC seminar on "Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights"
• Andy Mabbett used his talk at Library Camp UK in October to set the audience "homework" of creating an account on Wikipedia and improving a stub article.
• Mike Peel spoke at two sessions of the Science Online London (SOLO11) conference in September 2011
• Oliver Keyes, Tom Morris and Kim Bruning ran a stall for two days at the Charted Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals (CILIP) Umbrella conference in July 2011.
• Mike Peel spoke on the "Innovative Methods for Impact and Engagement" panel at the Investigating Academic Impact conference, June 2011.

"If you're serious about ensuring public engagement in your research then you need to make damn sure your work can be incorporated into Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the most important engagement channel for your research."

- Cameron Neylon (Public Library of Science) "Wikimedia UK Annual Review 2012-13"

"Wikipedia is an illustration of the way that academic work needs to change to benefit from a more educated public, a more networked world, in an age of information abundance. 21st-century scholars should be working with it, not against it."

- Amber Thomas (Jisc) Ariadne, November 2012 "21st-century Scholarship and Wikipedia"

"One of the most rewarding aspects can be in helping shape the public image of their field, say contributors. For many subjects – including scholarly topics – it is very often Wikipedia pages that are the top hits on Google, and for scholars who want their field represented accurately or interestingly, contributing to Wikipedia can help."

- Zoe Corbyn, The Guardian, Tuesday 29 March 2011 "Wikipedia wants more contributions from academics"

"The purpose of writing wasn't to promote my own work but a consequence was that a lot more people read my research articles."

- Eugenie Samuel Reich, Nature, 11 May 2011 "Online reputations: Best face forward"

"I request that the public fund my research through their tax and charitable contributions; in return I consider it my responsibility to provide them with accurate, up-to-date and free access to the scientific progress they pay for."

- Darren Logan (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), Wellcome Trust Blog, 18 May 2011 "Being a scientist in the age of Wikipedia"

"Perhaps other academic societies and professional bodies can contribute to an upgrading and extending Wikipedia entries. [...] [T]he advent of several geoscientific Wikipedians would greatly enhance Wikipedia's geological coverage, to the benefit of all."

- Brian Whalley (University of Sheffield) Ariadne, July 2012 "Wikipedia: Reflections on Use and Acceptance in Academic Environments"

"Wikipedia's user-friendly global reach offers an unprecedented opportunity for public engagement with science. Scientists who receive public or charitable funding should therefore seize the opportunity to make sure that Wikipedia articles are understandable, scientifically accurate, well sourced and up-to-date."

- Alex Bateman and Darren Logan (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), Nature, 9 December 2010 "Time to underpin Wikipedia wisdom"

"Dear Wikipedia, I want to thank you and to compliment you on your service. I often use it, especially also for technical information in physics and astronomy. Just now I was impressed by the density of information in your article on QCD, the theory of the strong interaction, in particular, its history."

- Jack Steinberger, 1988 Physics Nobel Laureate, 9 September 2010

Get in touch

Please contact Wikimedia UK if you would like to run a joint event or if you want a speaker or a guest article.

Call for volunteers

Wikimedia UK is seeking volunteers to give introductory talks, promote Wikimedia at conferences or deliver training. We can support travel and subsistence, and we can provide handouts and freebies to distribute. Drop a message to daria.cybulskawikimedia.org.uk stating your username on Wikimedia projects, where you can travel to and any relevant background.