Wikipedia is increasingly used by university students for "pre-research", to
gain context and explore ideas for course assignments and research projects [1]. Yet many
among scientists, academics and experts are reluctant to contribute to Wikipedia, despite
a growing number of calls from the scientific community to join the project [2-3].
The Wikimedia Research Committee [4] has just launched a survey to understand why
scientists, academics and other experts do (or do not) contribute to Wikipedia, and
whether individual motivation aligns with shared perceptions of Wikipedia within expert
communities. We hope this may help us identify ways around barriers to expert
participation. The survey is anonymous and takes about 20 min to complete. Please help us
circulate the link among your students and collaborators:
http://bit.ly/ExpertBarriers
Dario Taraborelli
Panagiota Alevizou
Daniel Mietchen
[1]
http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125899/
[2]
http://www.jmir.org/2011/1/e14/
[3]
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/members/aps-wikipedia-initiat…
[4]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_Committee