Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Editor outreach

Wikipedia has been losing active editors over the last few years per the editors trend study [1]. Measures to get people involved with improving Wikipedia's medical content are needed. A number of projects are currently ongoing.

Proposals to increase participation

Efforts to encourage medical students to edit are in development [2]. One approach involves presentations at universities around the world. ( some of which will be based on this paper [3]).

Those Involved
(sign up)

Newsletter

Speaking tour

This is a list of past and upcoming presentations regarding Wikipedia and Medicine.

2014

Rome, Italy, May 26th, 2014
Milan, Italy, May 23th, 2014
Iran Tehran Apr 17th, 2014
UCSF College of Medicine March 3rd and 4th

2013

A day of talks is being organized in Kathmandu in Oct of 2013 in collaboration with Wikimedia Nepal.
National Institute of Health, May 28th to 30th [4]
A week of talks at UCSF, San Franscico, Jan 7th to 11th, [5]
Cochrane Colloquium Sept 20th to 23rd [6]

2012

A
day of talks at Coventry, UK
is occurring Aug 31st 2012.
A talk is occurring Sept 25th, 2012 at noon in Geneva Switzerland at the World Health Organization regarding Wikipedia and Medicine

2011

A half day at McMaster has occurred Oct 4th, 2011 (see: Wikipedia at McMaster for further details)
A half day at UBC was arranged Oct 6/7th of 2011 (see: Wikipedia at UBC).
A half day at
New Delhi, India
is being arranged for Nov. 1st, 2011.
A half day at
Kathmandu, Nepal
is being arranged for Nov. 23, 2011.

Meetups

Wikimania Washington July 13th, 2012
Wikimania London Aug 8-10th, 2014

Collaborative publication with a journal

One concern we hear from academics is that Wikipedia gives too little of the recognition needed for tenure or advancement within one's profession. In an attempt to address this, potential collaborations with established journals in being discussed. The two journals that have expressed interest are the

PLoS Medicine. Further details can be found here and here

Adding a banner inviting people to edit

A trial of adding a banner inviting people to edit has been tested. Results are pending.

Paying editors for content

Another medical wiki (wikemerg [7]) has attempted to pay editors for content. The success of this approach has been limited and the cost significant. There is also a fair bit of literature which has found

extrinsic motivation

.

A wikipedia Canada scholarship was offered in 2011/2012. It was open to all post secondary students. Signs were posted at a number of universities across Canada. The idea did generate some press as discussed here.

Hiring a summer student

Hiring a summer student to take care of some of the day to day management of this project may improve quality here. I have put together a draft outline of the application Summer student

Outreach to Medical School Curricular Deans

I am in discussion with the curriculum leaders at UCSF about giving medical students elective credit for editing articles. Please get in touch with me if you have any recommendations for how best to standardize quantification of an individual's contributions - a difficult task but one vital for scaling this project. User:Michaelturken

Presentations

Shortcut

WP:MEDPRES

Some general resources on presentations are at outreach:Category:Best practices documentation.

A presentation given at McMaster and UBC. Feel free to reuse. [8]
Videos of presentations given at UBC Oct 6th, 2011 [9]
user:bluerasberry's presentation emphasizing traffic numbers
Wikimedia and Medicine: An Introduction (adapted from Doc James' version)

User boxes

This user is an applicant for The Wikipedia Canada Scholarship in Medicine.