Wikipedia:Meetup/Online edit-a-thon SDGs September 2020/Tasks
This pages provides detailed information on how to carry out tasks to volunteer in the Online edit-a-thon for SDGs in September 2020.
Possible tasks to choose from
[edit]Content related information
[edit]You can find SDG content-related tasks here on the talk page of this event. For example, we have listed some recent reports about the SDGs which could be utilized to enrich Wikipedia articles.
Editing Wikipedia articles
[edit]The table below shows you what you can do to help to improve Wikipedia articles. It might look a bit scary but you can easily select just one, two or more tasks that are suitable for your abilities and background by clicking on the sorting arrows at the top of the table.
# | Guiding question / tasks for each article (a list of articles to work on is provided below). Priority are the SDG articles. | Instructions and tips on how to carry out this task | Good example where this has been done | How difficult is this to do? | Suitable for which type of volunteer? | Could this lead to discussions or controversies with other Wikipedians? | Time required (per article)? | Suitable for what type of Wikipedian? |
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1 | Are internal links (wikilinks) from content articles or from biographies to the right SDG articles already in place or still need to be added?
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Easy | Anyone | Unlikely | 20 minutes | Novice |
2 | Does the article use internal links or wikilinks (from one Wikipedia article to another) in the correct manner?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Easy | Anyone | Unlikely | 30 minutes | Novice |
3 | Is the lead of the article a good summary of the article?
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What Wikipedia calls the "Lead" is the piece of text that appears first in the article, just before the table of contents. We want those leads to be the highest quality possible.
The lead should:
Further links:
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An example of a good lead in terms of length is the one for pit latrine. | Easy | Someone with English writing skills | Perhaps | 30 minutes | Novice |
4 | Does the article's readability need improvement?
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Simple edits you can do will improve the readability:
You can check the impact of your work by using this tool (webfx) or this tool (online utility) which gives you various readability scores for either a whole website or just a block of text. Paste in the web address of the revised article to get the new readability score. The Hemingway App is also a useful tool for improving readability. Is the current readability score (Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease) OK? Rule of thumb: anything over >45 is fairly OK. Further tips:
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Easy | Someone with English writing skills | Perhaps | 60-120 minutes | Novice |
5 | Are the articles's section headings following the standard format and ordering?
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See SDG 6 as an example. | Easy | Anyone | Perhaps | 30 minutes | Novice |
6 | Does the article's table of content have a level limit (it should)?
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See SDG as an example (view it in source editor) | Easy | Anyone | Perhaps | 2 minutes | Novice |
7 | Do the sub-articles link back to the main article?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Easy | Anyone | Unlikely | 20 minutes | Novice |
8 | Do any redirects need to be created for similar terms? |
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See the page where SDG6 is redirected to Sustainable Development Goal 6:https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SDG6&redirect=no | Easy | Someone who knows a bit about the topic | Unlikely | 5 minutes | Novice |
9 | Does the article need more content about developing countries in particular?
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In the article on "wastewater treatment" I added a new section on "Global situation", see edit history here. | Medium | Subject matter expert | Perhaps | 20-120 minutes | Novice |
10 | Does the article need more/better images? Are videos available?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Medium | Someone who knows a bit about the topic | Unlikely | 10 minutes per image | Experienced Wikipedian |
11 | Does the article need more content to become more comprehensive?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Difficult | Subject matter expert | Likely | 60-120 minutes | Experienced Wikipedian |
12 | Does the article need more or more recent references?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Difficult | Subject matter expert | Unlikely | 30-120 minutes | Experienced Wikipedian |
13 | If the article is about SDGs, does it already include the maps from SDG Tracker / Our World in Data to show data about the indicators?
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See SDG 6 as an example. | Medium | Someone who knows a bit about the topic | Unlikely | 10 minutes per map added | Experienced Wikipedian |
14 | Is the article's "See also" list OK, i.e. not too long?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Easy | Anyone | Unlikely | 5 minutes | Novice |
15 | Is the article's external links list the right length?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Easy | Anyone | Unlikely | 5 minutes | Novice |
16 | Should excessive details be moved to existing sub-articles? Is the article too long?
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All "featured articles" should do this perfectly. A featured article is the best quality article within Wikipedia. See examples of featured articles here: Wikipedia:Featured articles | Medium | Subject matter expert | Likely | 30-60 minutes | Experienced Wikipedian |
17 | Should the article be merged with another article? |
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Some time ago, User:EMsmile merged the existing article "Water supply and women in developing countries" into WASH. She discussed this with others here before doing the merger. The same user also merged "menstrual taboos" into "culture and menstruation" with (discussion was here). | Difficult | Subject matter expert | Likely | 60 minutes to several hours | Experienced Wikipedian |
18 | Is there an SDG article in another language that has more content than the English-language version? |
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The German article on SDGs has some additional content which the English article does not have yet. | Medium | Subject matter expert | Likely | 30 minutes to several hours | Experienced Wikipedian |
Applying standard outlines for the 17 individual SDG articles
[edit]Proposed standard section headings for the 17 SDG articles are shown below:
- The lead
- Background
- Targets, indicators and progress (with some example maps from SDG Tracker website)
- Overall progress and monitoring
- Links with other SDGs and other issues
- Organizations or Activities of organizations
- Reception (or controversies)
- Society and culture
- See also
- References
- External links
- Categories
More information is available in the "how to" table below. Many of the SDG articles are now already in reasonable shape (and can serve as examples), for example: SDG 6 and SDG 5.
Section heading | Explanation | Example where this has been done well (although none of the examples are perfect yet) |
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The lead | The lead (see WP:LEAD) should provide a three to four paragraph summary or overview in basic language. The lead should contain only one image (probably the logo of that particular SDG). | Pit latrine |
Background
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Add a short paragraph about SDGs in general; this could be the same for all.
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SDG 14 (but could be better) |
Targets and indicators | This should be more of a discussion/explanation than mere lists; the targets and indicators don't all need to be listed here but it should include the areas the indicators cover; should also include some maps from SDG tracker. It is best to use source editor to add a map. You can find all maps in Wikimedia Commons. Scroll up to the explanation for Task 13 to see how it's done. The text string then looks like this for example: [[File:Women who experienced violence by an intimate partner, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|World map for Indicator 5.2.1: Share of women, older than 14 years, who experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the last year.<ref name="SDGtracker5">Ritchie, Roser, Mispy, Ortiz-Ospina (2018) [https://sdg-tracker.org/gender-equality "Measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals." (SDG 5)] ''SDG-Tracker.org, website''</ref>]] This produces the image as shown at the top right of this table. | SDG 6,SDG |
Overall progress and monitoring | This could include status updates for different years. We think the progress for individual indicators should be included in the indicator section. This section could explain which organisations are doing the monitoring for this SDG and what the overall progress has been. | SDG 14 (but could be better) |
Links with other SDGs and other issues | Explain how this SDG interlinks with other SDGs or issues | SDG 16 |
Organizations or Activities of organizations | Provide information which organizations are dedicated to achieving this SDG in particular and the activities they carry out. | SDG 16 |
Reception (or controversies) | E.g. if there have been any discussions about missing indicators for this SDG, or the SDG is too difficult to achieve, does not have the right indicators, is superfluous etc (note this section was previously called "criticisms" but Wikipedia policy does not support this, see WP:CRIT) | SDG |
Society and culture (might include regulations if applicable)
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Explain what actions are being taken by civil society for this SDG. Can also list information for specific countries for this particular SDG here. | SDG 14 (but could be better) |
See also | Only include a "see also" list if the terms are not already mentioned in the article itself.
Guidance from Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout#"See also" section |
SDG 6 |
References | Preference is given to reputable sources, literature reviews; not blogs or discussion forums
Guidance from Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Reliable sources |
SDG 6 |
External links | This can be a short list and should only link to very important websites
Guidance from Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout#External links |
SDG 6 |
Categories | Each SDG article should be included in the category "Sustainable Development Goals" and in the category "Sustainable development" by adding this at the very end of the article while in "edit source" mode (additional categories might also be appropriate):
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SDG 6 |
Wikipedia articles that are SDG-related and need to be improved
[edit]The SDG-related Wikipedia articles that require improvement are listed below. The terms were selected by reviewing the targets and indicators of the goals (some of the terms appear for several SDGs), see List of SDG targets and indicators. The terms that are shown in red don't have a Wikipedia article yet.
To sort the list by view rates, click on the arrows in the table headers. The view rate figures are the average number of views each day, for several years up to July 2020.
Articles relevant for all SDGs
[edit]Goal | Article | Daily view rates |
---|---|---|
Overarching, applies to all SDGs
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:EMsmile, Brisbane |
Sustainable development goals | 2810 |
Least developed countries | 86 | |
Developing countries (consider merger or stream lining with Global South and North-South divide) | 2810 | |
Small Island Developing States | 136 | |
Global Goals Week (article recently created in August 2020) | 2 | |
United Nations General Assembly | 791 | |
United Nations | 6665 | |
United Nations Foundation | 65 | |
People / SDG leaders /Activist and movement pages - Maybe | ||
Country pages updated with SDG info to show progress/action taken at a national level - Maybe |
Country articles to improve further:
- Sustainable Development Goals and Australia
- Sustainable Development Goals and Ghana
- Sustainable Development Goals and Iran
- Sustainable Development Goals and Lebanon
- Sustainable Development Goals and Nigeria
Goal 1
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 1: No Poverty
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User: Doti Nicolasia, Nairobi |
SDG 1 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Development aid / Development cooperation | 231 | |
disaster risk reduction | 192 | |
Extreme poverty | 370 | |
Natural disaster | 3408 | |
Poverty | 2545 | |
Poverty threshold | 667 | |
social protection | 98 | |
Universal basic services | 40 |
Goal 2
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 2: Zero Hunger
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:Brunapedia, Beirut |
SDG 2 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Agricultural subsidy | 322 | |
Agricultural productivity | 211 | |
Anaemia | 124 | |
Food security | 1014 | |
Food prices | 20 | |
Genetic diversity | 392 | |
Hunger | 355 | |
Infrastructure | 1165 | |
Malnutrition / Undernourishment | 1460 | |
Subsistence agriculture | 516 | |
Stunted growth / Stunting | 231 | |
Sustainable agriculture | 518 | |
World Food Programme | 373 |
Goal 3
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being for People
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User: Doti Nicolasia, Nairobi |
SDG 3 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Antimicrobial resistance | 635 | |
Child mortality | 266 | |
Infection / Communicable diseases | 1,523 | |
Family planning | 817 | |
Global health | 200 | |
Health worker | 447 | |
Hepatitis | 2,217 | |
HIV/AIDS | 5,837 | |
Infant mortality | 776 | |
Malaria | 4,310 | |
Maternal death / Maternal mortality | 766 | |
Mortality rate | 1370 | |
Neglected tropical diseases | 255 | |
One Health | 65 | |
Perinatal mortality | 182 | |
Public health | 1102 | |
Road traffic safety | 678 | |
Reproductive health | 427 | |
Substance abuse | 1520 | |
Tuberculosis | 8,648 | |
Universal health care | 767 | |
Water-borne diseases | 878 |
Goal 4
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 4: Quality Education
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User: Doti Nicolasia, Nairobi |
SDG 4 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Child protection | 250 | |
Early childhood education | 728 | |
Education | 7645 | |
Educational equity | 219 | |
Educational inequality | 272 | |
Inclusion (education) | 526 | |
Indigenous peoples | 1569 | |
Literacy | 1013 | |
Nonformal learning | 229 | |
Numeracy | 130 | |
School | 1797 | |
Teacher | 1812 | |
Teacher education / teacher training | 373 | |
Vocational education | 976 | |
Vulnerable adult | 105 |
Goal 5
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 5: Gender Equality
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 5 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Discrimination | 1455 | |
Child marriage / early marriage | 1002 | |
Enabling | 160 | |
Enabling technology | 37 | |
Empowerment | 613 | |
Equal opportunity | 340 | |
Female genital mutilation | 4940 | |
Forced marriage | 361 | |
Gender | 3009 | |
Gender equality | 1496 | |
Gender inequality | 984 | |
Human trafficking | 2000 | |
Land tenure / land ownership | 240 | |
Public service | 666 | |
Reproductive health | 427 | |
Unpaid work | 61 | |
Violence against women | 1328 |
Goal 6
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 6 | 50 |
Drinking water | 969 | |
Ecosystems | 2897 | |
Hand washing | 543 | |
Hygiene | 1236 | |
Improved sanitation | 60 | |
Improved water source | 49 | |
Open defecation | 576 | |
Rainwater harvesting | 1593 | |
Reclaimed water | 308 | |
Sanitation | 937 | |
Wastewater treatment | 704 | |
WASH | 192 | |
Water efficiency | 66 | |
Water pollution | 4908 | |
Water quality | 545 | |
Water scarcity / water stress | 1061 | |
Water supply | 430 | |
Integrated water resources management | 65 |
Goal 7
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 7 | New article, created August 2020 |
Biofuels / Clean fuels | 1221 | |
Clean energy research | ||
Efficient energy use / energy efficiency | 549 | |
Electrification / access to electricity | 188 | |
Energy mix | 36 | |
Energy system / energy services | 75 | |
Energy intensity | 87 | |
Modern energy | ||
Primary energy | 185 | |
Renewable energy | 1400 | |
Sustainable energy / Clean energy | 2818 |
Goal 8
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 8 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Aid for Trade | New article (created in September 2020) | |
Child labor | 2756 | |
Decent work | 54 | |
Domestic material consumption | 3 | |
Ecological footprint (instead of material footprint) | 503 | |
Economic growth (instead of sustainable economic growth) | 1236 | |
Employment | 956 | |
Financial services | 1314 | |
Gross domestic product | 6770 | |
Global Jobs Pact | ||
Human trafficking | 2000 | |
Informal economy / Informal employment | 400 | |
International Labor Organization | 1014 | |
Labor rights | 245 | |
Landlocked country | 1543 | |
least developed countries | 86 | |
Migrant worker | 324 | |
Occupational injury | 61 | |
Real gross domestic product | 203 | |
Resource efficiency | 43 | |
Slavery in the 21st century / modern slavery | 383 | |
Sustainable development / Sustainable economic growth | 2700 | |
Sustainable tourism | 356 | |
Unfree labor / forced labor | 150 | |
Unemployment | 1700 | |
Youth unemployment | 243 |
Goal 9
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 9 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Credit / affordable credit? | 282 | |
Developing country | 2163 | |
Employment (look for manufacturing employment) | 956 | |
Environmentally friendly / environmentally sound technologies | 432 | |
Financial services | 1314 | |
Green infrastructure / sustainable infrastructure | 92 | |
Industrialisation | 723 | |
Industrial diversification | ||
Information and communications technology (ICT) / Access to ICT | 2318 | |
Infrastructure | 1165 | |
Internet access | 1095 | |
Landlocked country | 1543 | |
Official development assistance | 252 | |
Research / researcher | 2257 | |
Research and development / R&D worker | 974 | |
Resilient infrastructure | ||
Right to internet access | 193 | |
Road transport (look for all-season road) | 356 | |
Small business / small scale industry | 827 | |
Small Island Developing States | 136 | |
Sustainable industries | 28 | |
Sustainable urban infrastructure | 30 |
Goal 10
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 10: Reducing Inequalities
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 10 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Economic inequality | 877 | |
Equal opportunity | 340 | |
Financial institution / global financial institution | 555 | |
Financial market | 965 | |
Financial soundness indicator | ||
Foreign direct investment | 1403 | |
Gross domestic product / labour share of GDP | 6770 | |
Global financial system / global financial markets | 241 | |
Human migration / look for migration policy | 936 | |
Human rights | 3342 | |
Income / income growth | 340 | |
Income inequality metrics | 148 | |
International human rights law | 305 | |
International Monetary Fund | 4,229 | |
International organization | 778 | |
Landlocked country | 1543 | |
Migrant worker | 324 | |
Anti-discrimination law / Non-discriminatory laws | 212 | |
Official development assistance | 252 | |
Refugee | 1049 | |
Remittance / migrant remittance | 586 | |
Social exclusion / social inclusion | 548 | |
Social protection / social protection policy | 98 | |
Tariff / look for zero-tarrif and tariff lines | 1052 | |
World Bank | 3,567 | |
World Trade Organization | 3325 |
Goal 11
[edit]Goal 12
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: |
SDG 12 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Developed country | 2396 | |
Energy subsidies / Fossil-fuel subsidies | 21 | |
Food waste | 488 | |
Government procurement / public procurement | 222 | |
Hazardous waste | 431 | |
Natural resources | 2044 | |
Post-harvest losses (grains) | 41 | |
Post-harvest losses (vegetables) | 73 | |
Recycling | 1880 | |
Renewable energy | 2818 | |
Resource recovery | 80 | |
Sustainable products | 83 | |
Sustainability reporting | 111 | |
Sustainable tourism | 356 | |
Sustainable consumption | 61 | |
Education for sustainable development | 101 | |
Global citizenship education | 44 |
Goal 13
[edit]If you have an in-depth interest in climate change, take a look at the "To-dos" compiled by members of the WikiProject Climate Change here.
Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 13: Climate Action
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:RosieTMM2030, Chicago |
SDG 13 | New article, created in September 2020 |
Climate change adaptation | 147 | |
Climate change mitigation | 430 | |
Effects of global warming / Impacts of climate change | 2118 | |
Education for sustainable development | 101 | |
Global citizenship education | 44 | |
Climate change / global warming | 9457 | |
Green Climate Fund | 258 | |
Greenhouse gas / greenhouse gas emissions | 3471 | |
Natural disaster | 3407 | |
Sustainable energy / Clean energy | 1400 | |
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change | 884 |
Goal 14
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 14: Life Below Water
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:Brunapedia, Beirut |
SDG 14 | 42 |
Artisanal fishing / small-scale fisheries | 45 | |
Eutrophication / coastal eutrophication | 1144 | |
Fish stock | 46 | |
Fisheries subsidy | 5 | |
Least developed countries | 86 | |
Marine conservation / marine resources | 118 | |
Marine pollution | 537 | |
Marine technology | 25 | |
Microplastics | 372 | |
Overfishing | 337 | |
Ocean acidification | 586 | |
Sea surface temperature / Ocean temperatures | 253 | |
Sustainable fishery | 87 | |
Sustainable tourism | 356 | |
Small Island Developing States | 136 | |
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea | 847 |
Goal 15
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 15: Life on Land
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:Brunapedia, Beirut |
SDG 15 | 30 |
Biodiversity loss | 172 | |
Desertification | 780 | |
Ecosystems | 2897 | |
Ecosystem services | 624 | |
Invasive species | 1011 | |
Land degradation | 464 | |
Poaching | 724 | |
Reforestation | 304 | |
Sustainable forest management | 170 | |
Terrestrial ecosystems | 225 | |
Wildlife smuggling / trafficking of wildlife | 61 | |
Wildlife trade | 105 |
Goal 16
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:RosieTMM2030, Chicago |
SDG 16 | 35 |
Arms trafficking / arms trading | 325 | |
Bribery | 596 | |
Corruption | 1741 | |
Domestic violence | 2188 | |
Freedom of information laws by country / public access to information | 172 | |
Fundamental freedoms / fundamental rights | 440 | |
Global governance | 302 | |
Human rights | 3342 | |
Human trafficking | 2000 | |
Illicit financial flows | 24 | |
Inclusive democracy | 45 | |
Justice | 1038 | |
Legal identity / legal person | 290 | |
Anti-discrimination laws / Non-discriminatory laws | 212 | |
Open government | 114 | |
Organized crime | 1160 | |
Public access | 172 | |
Public services | 665 | |
Rule of law | 1595 | |
Social exclusion / social inclusion | 548 | |
Violence against children (redirects to domestic violence) | ||
Violence against women | 1328 | |
Violence | 921 |
Goal 17
[edit]Goal number | Article | Daily view rates
(assessed July 2020) |
---|---|---|
Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
SDG expert / Wikipedian to support you: User:RosieTMM2030, Chicago |
SDG 17 | 25 |
Birth registration / certificate | 552 | |
Capacity building | 405 | |
Debt | 449 | |
Debt sustainability | ||
Debt-to-GDP ratio | 655 | |
Developing country | 2163 | |
Development aid (look for development assistance commitments) | 231 | |
Environmentally friendly | 432 | |
Export | 517 | |
Foreign direct investment | 1403 | |
Government debt | 665 | |
Least developed countries | 86 | |
Macroeconomics | 1334 | |
Policy Coherence for Development | 7 | |
Poverty reduction | 431 | |
Public-private partnership | 872 | |
Statistical plans ? | ||
Sustainable development | 2700 |
Finding your way around Wikipedia (for novices)
[edit]Adjust your "Preferences"
[edit]- Go to Wikipedia.org and login.
- Click on "Preferences" at the top right of the screen and adjust your preferences.
- These five tabs are especially important:
- Editing: Use the pull-down menu next to "Editing mode" and select "show me both editor tabs." (Click here to learn about the difference between "edit" and "edit source.") Most novices use "edit" because it's just like editing a Word document then. For some functions and for advanced users, the "edit source" button needs to be used (for example to set up a page redirect, a reference list or to insert an image from Wikimedia Commons).
- Watchlist: Tick boxes to assure that pages you create, edit, or upload will be on your watchlist.
- User profile: Tick the box "Email me when a page or a file on my watchlist is changed."
- Notifications: Tick boxes to tell Wikipedia what type of e-mail notifications you want to receive.
- Gadgets: Have a look and see if you want to tick or untick any of the boxes
Read and write on the talk pages
[edit]The Talk tab is located at the top left of any Wikipedia article. It takes you to the page where people talk about the article. How to use the talk pages:
- Ask (and answer) questions related to the Wikipedia article.
- Add your question or answer to the bottom of the page to make reading the running dialogue easy.
- At the end of what you write, insert four tildes (~~~~) and the system automatically "signs" with your username and the date.
- For more information: Talk page guidelines.
Use the "edit" or the "edit source" tabs to edit
[edit]The "Edit" or "Edit source" tabs at the top take you to the page where you can make changes to the article. There you can:
- Use the editing ribbon just as you do for editing documents: Bold, Italic, font size, numbered list, etc.
- Hover over the icons and you will find ones for adding hyperlinks, images and references.
- If you don't have both buttons visible, you need to adjust your Wikipedia Preferences at the top right (scroll up a little on this page to see where this is explained)
Saving or publishing your edits
[edit]The "save" button has recently been renamed to "publish changes" and is located at the top right.
- Make sure you save your edits often (this protects yourself in case your internet connection gets lost; also it helps others to follow your progress (via the edit summary fields); also it avoids editing conflicts if someone else is working on the same page at the same time). Saving your edits is done by clicking on the button "Publish changes" at the top right.
- Fill in the "Edit summary" box so others can see the reasoning behind your changes.
- The "Watch this page" box is already ticked by default.
A "search for help" tip
[edit]- To search for something inside of the Wikipedia system (i.e. the "internal" pages), simply put "WP:xxx" into Wikipedia's search field at the top right. This will search Wikipedia's guidance and help pages for the search term xxx. For example: "WP:adding images" will bring up the Wikipedia guidelines on how to add images. Or if you put "WP:Manual of Style" into the search box of Wikipedia, it will take you to the internal Manual of Style pages of Wikipedia.
Browse Wikipedia help pages
[edit]- Ten simple rules for editing Wikipedia
- Avoiding common mistakes
- Tutorial
- Policies and guidelines
- The Five pillars of Wikipedia
- Dos and dont's pages in Wikipedia
- Manual of Style - a helpful guide on how to write a Wikipedia article
- Verifiability - what to keep in mind regarding the verifiability of information being added to Wikipedia
- Neutral point of view - about Neutral point of view (NPOV) on Wikipedia, what it is and why it is so important
- What Wikipedia is not - what Wikipedia is NOT, always important to keep in mind.
- Talk page guidelines.
Tutorial videos
[edit]Take a look at short introduction videos (created by EMsmile and other Sanitation Wikipedia volunteers in 2017): Youtube Playlist. The three videos include:
- How to make your first edits in Wikipedia: https://youtu.be/e-pK3aByl6U
- First steps in Wikipedia editing: talk pages, editing, watchlist, preferences, history... https://youtu.be/_Z7F9pbYIx8
- How to insert references and images to Wikipedia articles: https://youtu.be/qgd9UM_eCzk
More videos created by EMsmile explaining various editing tasks in Wikipedia are available in this playlist.
Recommended editing tasks (in general)
[edit]Improve the quality of the first thing readers read
[edit]What Wikipedia calls the "Lead" appears first - just before the table of contents and the first section of every article. We want those leads to be the highest quality possible.
The lead should:
- be like an "executive summary" for the article (similar to an abstract for a journal paper)
- have up to 4 paragraphs (each paragraph no longer than 6 lines).
- include hyperlinks for key words (so readers will click and go to other Wikipedia pages).
- use short clear sentences of no more than 15-20 words.
More information about the lead is here. An example of a good lead in terms of length is the one for pit latrine.
Improve the "readability" of the entire article
[edit]Simple edits you can do will improve the readability:
- Replace long words with short words whenever possible.
- Replace passive voice with active voice
- Make long sentences shorter or break them into two sentences.
- Reduce paragraph lengths to 4-6 lines.
You can check the impact of your work by using this tool (webfx) or this tool (online utility) which gives you various readability scores for either a whole website or just a block of text. Paste in the web address of the revised article to get the new readability score. The Hemingway App is also a useful tool for improving readability. Do you want more tips on improving readability? See here.
Adding citations
[edit]- Find articles that need a citation. Here you can search for articles needing a citation based on the list of articles related to SDG.
- Search the literature to see if there's more current information available than is currently cited in the articles.
- Find citations for assertions not referenced, or delete unsupported assertions. Adding references (or citations) is explained here.
Adding images and world maps
[edit]- Search the literature and internet to see if there are more maps, schematics and alike that could be added to the articles (they need to be under the open access licence CC-BY SA).
- How to add images is explained in detail here.
- Useful world maps for the SDG articles, and especially their indicators, are available on the SDG Tracker website which is part of Our World in Data. And the best thing: they are under an open access licence so we can directly use them, and most of them have already been imported to Wikimedia Commons. From there, you can copy the link to insert the map with just a few mouse clicks. See e.g. here for SDG 1: SDG Tracker maps for SDG 1. You can find those maps in the category "Our World in Data" within Wikimedia Commons here.
Work offline: no need to learn the Wikipedia editing system
[edit]- Copy the lead or the article you want to work to Microsoft Word or any other word processor and make your changes with the "track changes" function turned on.
- Email your document to wikipedia@susana.org, and we'll input your changes into Wikipedia.
Example to-do list from WikiProject Climate Change
[edit]Active Wikipedians have set up a To-Do list for Climate Change topics here. Equivalent to-do's exist on a range of SDG-related topics.
Where to get help
[edit]Want to ask a question? You have several options:
- Send an e-mail to wikipedia@susana.org. A person will respond within 24 hours.
- Click on the "talk" tab at the top of this Meetup Page, and type in your question, followed by the 4 tildes: ~~~~ (you need to have a Wikipedia login, and be logged in, to use a talk page)
- Write on the talk page of the event coordinator User:EMsmile here.
- If you work on articles related to SDG 6 you can also post your question on the SuSanA discussion Forum. Click SuSanA Discussion Forum.
List of do’s and don'ts for Wikipedia editing
[edit]Do's for brand new editors
[edit]- Do get a Wikipedia user name (think about real name versus non-real name, see Username policy).
- Do adjust your "Preferences" within Wikipedia - see here how it's done: Finding your way around Wikipedia (for novices).
- Do add at least a little bit of information on your user profile. This reduces the chances that your edits will be reverted. See for example the user profile of Elisabeth here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:EMsmile
- Do edit Wikipedia only after logging in (sometimes one forgets that one isn’t logged in which results in “anonymous” edits). The easiest method is to just tick the box “Keep me logged in (for up to 365 days)”
- Do save your changes frequently, always clicking on “Publish changes” and adding a short edit summary each time that you have made a change.
- Do write in simple, easy to understand language (think of your parents when you write - anyone should be able to understand it). Wikipedia is for laypersons and it is read by people who don’t have English as their first language.
- Do always cite the source(s) of your statements and content. See here what constitutes a reliable source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources
- Do put the reference directly after the fullstop, not before. Do put all references at the very end of the sentence, not in the middle.
- Do paraphrase sentences that you wish to include from elsewhere. Paraphrase and provide the sources. If paraphrasing is not possible you could use quotation marks for some statements but this should not be done too often. The reasons for paraphrasing are: 1) to make the sentences understandable for laypersons - short sentences, simple language, no jargon; 2) to avoid copyright problems as most of the publications that you find on the internet (particularly those from the UN) are actually "all rights reserved", sadly. If they were open access then we could directly copy content, except for the reasons described under Point 1.
- Do familiarise yourself with Wikipedia’s copyright policy which is very strict! Copying material without the permission of the copyright holder from sources that are not public domain or compatibly licensed (unless it's a brief quotation used in accordance with Wikipedia's non-free content policy and guideline) is likely to be a copyright violation. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyright_violations
Don'ts for brand new editors
[edit]- Don’t edit Wikipedia while not logged into your Wikipedia account, as it makes it harder for others to react to your changes; also your edits would not be counted towards the editathon (and you could not win any of the prizes).
- Don’t start editing if you haven’t yet registered yourself for this editathon (after logging into Wikipedia) here
- Don’t copy whole sentences or even paragraphs across from another publication or website for several reasons: (1) the language is likely to be unsuitable for Wikipedia readers who are laypersons - language needs to be simple and easy to understand; no jargon. (2) it is likely not written in an encyclopedic style; (3) the document is likely under copyright and not open access;.
- Don’t add content to Wikipedia if you think that doing so may be a copyright violation.
- Don’t include anything in Wikipedia that hasn't been already written elsewhere. Unless it's something completely plain and obvious, such as "the sky is blue". In Wikipedia language this is called “no original research”. Wikipedia does not publish original thought. All material in Wikipedia must be attributable to a reliable, published source. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to reach or imply a conclusion not clearly stated by the sources themselves. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research
- Don’t add your own personal opinions, knowledge etc. - unless this information has been published somewhere already; then you can cite it. Blog posts count as a reference, so do newspaper articles, or opinion pieces. See here what constitutes a “reliable source”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources
- Don’t engage in an “edit war” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_warring). If someone has reverted your edits, try to talk to them about it by mentioning them on the talk page of the article (they will be notified by e-mail or your mention).
- Don’t get upset or disheartened when a more experienced Wikipedian “scolds” you for something or reverts your edit. If you experience any problems, simply approach the event coordinators or any other experienced Wikipedia editor that you know.
- Don’t add external links into the Wikipedia article. The only place where you can add external links is under “External links” at the very end (that list should be short).
- Don’t use bold or any other formatting in a Wikipedia article. The only bold text that is allowed is the first few words of the very first sentence of the lead.
Do’s for intermediate editors
[edit]- Do try to include information from several different sources, particularly if the sources look at the topic from different angles and might even reach different conclusions.
- Do always maintain a neutral and objective point of view. Try to always look at it from all angles If there are opposing views, present both, without making a judgement - unless that judgement has also been published somewhere.
- Do keep in mind that we are writing an encyclopedia for the general public. We want to present them with all the available information in easy to understand language.
- Do use American English for this entire edit-a-thon (in particular for all the SDG articles and any new articles). However, for existing well-established articles, continue in either American or British English, whichever the article is using so far. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Retaining_the_existing_variety
- Do use talk pages frequently to discuss upcoming changes to an article. Do always sign your statements with the four tildes (~~~~). This is Wikipedia’s convention and converts into a “date and person” stamp when you click on “publish changes”.
- Do give full details for each reference, i.e. not just a link to a website but rather title of page, title of website, publisher; not just a link to a pdf file but author, year, title, publisher. More dos and donts about references are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:References_dos_and_don%27ts
- Do add the page number to your reference when it’s a big report and the source of your statement is hard to find (this looks like this in source editor: {{rp|2}} for page 2.
- Do remember that consensus is Wikipedia's fundamental model for editorial decision-making. See list with dos and donts about consensus here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Consensus_dos_and_don%27ts
- Do experiment with the tabs “edit” versus “edit source” because each has its usefulness for different things. The main editor you will probably use most of the time is the “editor” (see the button labelled “edit”) which is “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG)
- Do add internal links (wikilinks) to other Wikipedia articles but do follow the guidance provided here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Linking_dos_and_don%27ts
- Do browse Wikipedia guidelines for greater insights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_guidelines
Don'ts for intermediate editors
[edit]- Don’t write like an opinion piece or essay, using wording like “we need to keep in mind that…”. “It is unfair that…”.
- Don’t use expressions that may introduce bias, lack precision, or include offensive terms. Use clear, direct language. Let facts alone do the talking! Wikipedia calls this “words to watch”, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions
- Don’t write “Smith and Miller stated that poverty is a problem”. Simply write: “Poverty is a problem.[2]” and then put the reference by Smith and Miller at the end of your statement.
- Don’t create a new Wikipedia article unless absolutely necessary. Often the same article already exists under a similar title. For the purposes of the edit-a-thon we recommend to check with Elisabeth (User:EMsmile) before starting a new Wikipedia article.
- Don't put a wikilink to a non-existing Wikipedia article (it shows up in red), unless you have a valid reason (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Red_link).
- Don’t make the lead longer than 4 paragraphs (the lead is the part at the start, before the table of contents, and is meant to be a summary of the article). For more dos and donts for the leads see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lead_dos_and_don%27ts
- Don’t delete other people’s content of articles unless you have a very good reason. It’s best to discuss it first on the talk page or to at least explain it in your edit summary.
- Do not make big changes to an article in one go without explaining to people on the talk pages what you are planning to do. Sometimes it’s best to spread out big changes over 2-3 days so that other people have time to react.
- Don’t use bullet point lists unless they are really needed. Prose is usually better.
- Don’t repeat references more than once in the reference list. The same reference can be used many times in the article but it should appear only exactly once in the reference list. You can just copy and paste it inside the article. For example, the little a, b, c in the reference list indicates that this reference is used three times in the Wikipedia article: a b c Andersson, Kim; Dickin, Sarah; Rosemarin, Arno (2016). "Towards "Sustainable" Sanitation: Challenges and Opportunities in Urban Areas". Sustainability. 8 (12): 1289. doi:10.3390/su8121289.
Links to other edit-a-thons to learn from
[edit]- Wikipedia writing challenge to improve the coverage of women on Wikipedia, April 2020 (online), high impact
- COVID 19: Health and Gender Editathon, June 2020 (online)
- WikiGap Nigeria Online Challenge, May 2020 (online)
- African Climate Change edit-a-thon, Aug 2019 (in person)
- Sanitation Wikipedia edit-a-thon, November 2017 (online)
- Training: Running Editathons and other Editing Events
External links
[edit]- ^ Ritchie, Roser, Mispy, Ortiz-Ospina (2018) "Measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals." (SDG 5) SDG-Tracker.org, website