Royal Society of Chemistry 2014 Event
Background
| “Wikipedia is now the first port of call for people seeking information on subjects that include scientific topics. Like it or not, other scientists and the public are using it to get an overview of your specialist area. Wikipedia's user-friendly global reach offers an unprecedented opportunity for public engagement with science.”
Alex Bateman and Darren Logan, letter to Nature, 8 December 2010 |
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional body for chemical scientists. With 48,000 members and a knowledge business that spans the globe, the RSC is a not-for-profit organisation with 170 years of history and an international vision for the future. Its mission it to work to shape the future of the chemical sciences – for the benefit of science and humanity.
As a result of a discussion between John Cummings, our Wikimedian-in-Residence at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, and staff members of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a collaborative event between RSC and WMUK will take place on Friday 28 March 2014 at Burlington House, the London home of the RSC.
The event will consist of a morning session for members of the RSC, intended to give an introduction to editing Wikipedia and an afternoon session where they will be joined online by interested Wikipedians to create or improve Wikipedia articles related to chemistry.
Draft programme
- Friday 28 March 2014
- Burlington House, London
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 10:00–10:30 | arrival, registration and coffee |
| 10:30–10:40 | Welcome and introduction to the day |
| 10:40–12:30 | Introduction to Wikipedia: basic editing (with practical training), the importance of referencing, adding and using images, conflict of interest |
| 12:30–13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30–14:00 | Chemistry & Wikipedia: session run by RSC staff looking at chemical information in Wikipedia, and how ChemSpider can help you to find information and provide resources to help add chemical information to wiki pages |
| 14:00–16:00 | Editathon: time to practice on editing with one-to-one assistance |
| 16:00–16:30 | Closing session: review of the editing done on the day and help on how to keep in touch; encouragement in continuing editing to retain new editors |
Topics to edit
Suggestions are welcome below:
- Female Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Past Preseidents and notable chemists including:
- Dr Helen Neville
- Reverend Ronald Lancaster, founder of Kimbolton Fireworks
- Dr Martha Annie Whiteley
- Herbert Garland
- John Mason Ward
- John Howard Purnell
- Edward William Abel
- Many articles on inorganic and organometallic compounds lack info on their crystal structures with bond distances and angles.
- Edit in an area where you are expert or where you have a fascination, but avoid citing yourself or your colleagues. A good starting point is material that is covered in a textbook or monograph.
- Articles on techniques often are lacking illustrative spectra or related measurements of a graphical nature.
- Most of Wiki-chemistry is written by academically oriented editors, but much real-world chemistry is quite different in character. Industrial perspectives are especially welcome since they often impact more directly on most people.
- Chemistry is a very big topic - all of the physical world is chemical in nature- so consider adding chemical content to topics well outside of traditional chemistry areas - what is "stuff" made of?
- On the English language Wikipedia we have 26 top importance articles that are only start class and 22 high importance articles that are only stubs. Can we get these up at least one quality class?
Bear in mind is that tens of thousands of publications appear annually in the chemical literature. Thus, citations to specialized journal articles are usually disfavored. Instead we strive to cite reviews and books. The guideline is "Primary, secondary and tertiary sources". In the same vein, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, it is not a technical review journal such as Chem. Soc. Rev. We do not aspire to record or describe current (or not so current) factoids.
Participation
In person
The number of participants for this event is limited to 20 and for this reason we'll have to select among those who will contact us to participate. Unsuccessful applicants may be given places on any subsequent workshops that are run in the future.
The Royal Society of Chemistry will cover the travel expenses of participants within the UK only.
If you wish to take part in the workshop send an email to:
- communications
rsc.org
specifying your details (name, RSC membership number) and telling us why you are interested in the workshop and most importantly what would you like to get out of the day.
Deadline for registration 16 February 2014.
Online
Interested Wikipedians are invited to join us online (watch here for notice of IRC channel) between 14:00 and 16:00 on Friday 28 March 2014 to collaborate on improving the coverage of chemistry and chemists on Wikipedia
If you are intending to join us remotely, please sign up below:
use: * {{u-en | Your_username_on_English_Wikipedia }}
Trainers
The plan is for 20 members of the RSC to attend. I'd like to use 4 or 5 trainers to ensure that the editing sessions have sufficient one-to-one help available. The following have expressed an interest in being involved in the Wikipedia training: