Hi there wiki-research folks,

This is just a heads-up that English Wikipedia has adopted a new policy[1] about research on that project. The policy codifies some new requirements for community notification and disclosure that potentially apply to all research projects (regardless of the affiliation of the researcher).

You can read more about the policy on WP:NOT[1], but I've included the major points below for your convenience:

- any research project that involves directly changing article content, surveying a large number of editors, or asking editors sensitive questions about their real-life identities needs to be discussed on Wikipedia's Village Pump[2] before it is begun[3] - researchers should disclose who they are on their user pages, including their institutional affiliation, sources of research funding (if applicable), and the intentions behind their research[4]

Many aspects of this policy boil down to either common sense, existing ethical standards for human subjects research, or both. However, this policy also leaves certain definitions and thresholds undefined. What is a "large number" of surveyed users? What is a "sensitive question"? There are no concrete answer to these questions yet, and that's probably a good thing. The best way to keep this policy from becoming overly restrictive[5] is for researchers to follow its guidance in good faith, and ask questions when they're uncertain.

Projects that are deemed to be in violation of these guidelines may lose editing privileges. If the violations are deemed particularly frequent or severe, the EnWiki community may decide to make even more rules, which could have a chilling effect on wikiresearch in general. Nobody wants that.

If you have general questions about this policy or its application, the best place to ask is the WP:NOT talkpage.[6]

If you have questions related to a specific planned research project, the best thing to do is to err on the side of caution and open up a discussion on the Village Pump before you begin.

You are also welcome to post your project plan to this list, where we, your friendly peers, will hopefully offer constructive feedback and links to relevant resources.

Wikimedia Foundation research staff are not in charge of these guidelines, but are happy to offer advice "from the trenches" so to speak if asked. We are on this list too.

As always, if you are currently researching Wikipedia, or plan to do so, please create a Research Project page on MetaWiki[7] (example[8], tips[9]), keep it up to date, and link to it from your userpage[10]. That way interested parties can follow your research and ask questions, and you won't need to constantly re-explain what you're doing every time someone asks.

Happy researching,

Jonathan

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_n... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals) 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#cite_note-7 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#cite_note-8 5. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Instruction_creep 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:What_Wikipedia_is_not 7. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Projects 8. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Supporting_Commons_contribution_by_... 9. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Project_documentation_best_practice... 10. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:LZia_(WMF)