Wikipedia and crowd sourcing: Improving health information for the public

Session: 

Workshop session 8: Saturday, 11:00-12:30

Workshop category: 

  • Evidence literacy, social media, science journalism
Status

ID: 

WS73
Date and Location

Date: 

Saturday 16 September 2017 - 11:00 to 12:30

Location: 

Contact persons and facilitators

Contact person:

Facilitators: 

Sylvia De Haan
Holly Millward
Nancy Owens
Target audience

Target audience: 

anyone with an interest of communicating research evidence through Wikipedia

Level of difficulty: 

Basic
Type of workshop

Type of workshop : 

Training
Abstract

Abstract:

Objectives:
To introduce participants to:
1. the Cochrane-Wikipedia initiative and ongoing projects to increase Cochrane's contribution to Wikipedia;
2. how to edit articles in Wikipedia, specifically how to register as a user, creating user pages, general editing, citing and referencing, and following some good practices.

Description:
Wikipedia has been accepted worldwide as a credible source of health information by lay people, medical students, and healthcare professionals. With about 155 000 health articles getting about 400 million page views each month, there is an urgent need for ensuring that information available on Wikipedia is accurate, current, reliable and free from bias. For Cochrane helping to ensure the quality and reliability of Wikipedia health articles is a logical extension of our mission to produce, disseminate and advocate for the best available evidence. This workshop is for new or novice editors in Wikipedia who wish to learn more about Wikipedia and to contribute actively to the improvement of health articles. Participants wishing to make specific edits are encouraged to prepare and bring edited text, references, and other resources in advance of the workshop to maximise efficient use of limited time. The workshop will also draw attention to Task Exchange and other crowd sourcing tools that Cochrane is using to increase its contribution to Wikipedia content.