Digital humanities - wikipedia training modules = main rules

five pillars of wikipedia

• wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia

• wikipedia has a neutral point of view

• wikipedia is free content

• Wikipedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner

• wikipedia does not have firm rules

pillar one = wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia

It's an encyclopedia, a place where you can go to find a good summary of what's already known about a topic.

what pillar one is not

It’s not an advertising platform, a personal website, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, a collection of random data, or a search engine.

It’s not a dictionary, a newspaper, a book or instruction manual, or a collection of found documents.

pillar two = wikipedia has a neutral point of view

Wikipedia articles should document and explain the major points of view in a balanced and impartial manner. Just the facts!

pillar two don’t

• Debate or attempt to persuade readers

• Share personal experiences or opinions

• Share your own analysis of the information you find

pillar three = wikipedia is free content (that anyone can edit, use, modify, and distribute)

Everything on Wikipedia is free to use. So when you contribute information to Wikipedia, you need to make sure it's OK to share freely (copying and pasting copyrighted material into Wikipedia = plagiarism)

pillar four = editors should interact with each other in a respectful and civil manner

keep some core Wikipedia values in mind:

• Respect and be polite to your fellow Wikipedians, even when you disagree.

• Avoid personal attacks. Talk to people you disagree with, and try to find consensus.

• If you don’t agree with someone’s edit, don’t just “change it back.” That’s an edit war, and it could get you both blocked!

• Act in good faith. Never disrupt Wikipedia to make a point.

pillar five = wikipedia does not have firm rules

Rules in Wikipedia are not carved in stone. Their wording and interpretation are likely to change over time.

verifiability: “says who?”

make sure you only share facts that you draw from reliable sources. Reliable sources include:

• Textbooks

• Literature reviews

• Books or publications written by experts in the field, and published by reliable publishers.

Do not use:

• Blog posts

• Press materials intended to show something in a certain light

notability: “why this?”

When you’re thinking of ideas to write about, keep notability in mind. Find a handful of reliable sources early, so you know your article is notable. Then you can share them through the article’s Talk page as you get started

what makes a topic notable

The basic requirement for a topic to have its own article is: significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

significant coverage

means that at least a couple of sources talk specifically about your topic (it should be more than a single mention or single line of text)

reliable sources

generally means that coverage comes from secondary sources from reputable publishers

independent of the subject

means the publisher doesn't have a stake in presenting a biased point of view (either positive or negative)

no original research

"No original research" means your writing for Wikipedia will summarize what other people have said about a topic you’re interested in, so that a Wikipedia reader can get an overview of the current thoughts and understanding of that topic

copyright and plagiarism 

The rules cover not only copy-and-paste plagiarism, but also close paraphrasing and copyright violations. And the stakes are high: the consequences of committing plagiarism in a Wikipedia class assignment are the same as handing in a paper you didn't write

the forms of plagiarism

unattributed plagiarism, cited plagiarism and close paraphrasing 

unattributed plagiarism

when a piece of text is copied word-for-word from a source and added to a Wikipedia article without citation

cited plagiarism 

when a piece of text is copied word-for-word from a source, and added to Wikipedia with a citation. Even if you acknowledge that the words aren’t yours, you still can’t copy them into a Wikipedia article

close paraphrasing

when a piece of text is copied, but the words are changed bit-by-bit. The basic structure of the sentences stay the same. This is bad news, whether you cite it or not