Wikipedia Visiting Scholars

Connecting experienced Wikipedians with academic institutions to improve Wikipedia.

Currently open positions:

Getting started with the Wikipedia Visiting Scholars program - guide for new Visiting Scholars

The Visiting Scholars program connects you with the research resources available in an educational institution's library. Over the course of your time as a Visiting Scholar, you can use these materials to improve articles on topics of mutual interest.

This page provides details about how a Scholarship is carried out. It's intended as a resource for new Visiting Scholars as they begin working with an institutional sponsor. With a few noted exceptions, this guide should be considered guidance for best practices, not firm rules. The Scholarship agreement linked below is designed to facilitate discussion and documentation of the particulars covered on this page.

Term

The length of the Visiting Scholars relationship is set by the sponsor for administrative reasons. They are encouraged to determine the length of time that makes sense for them early in the process. Most Scholarships last for 12 months, but others have been for 6 months, 9 months, or align with one or more parts of the academic calendar. If all parties are satisfied with the collaboration at the end of the term, you may want to consider an additional term or switching to an indefinite "at-will" basis.

Communication

The frequency of communication with institutional sponsors varies based on a number of factors. Some sponsors take an entirely hands-off approach asking only for Dashboard tracking and an end-of-term reflection (see below). Most of the time there are periodic check-ins to discuss recent or future editing projects. Sometimes these check-ins are an administrative requirement to justify granting access to library resources. Generally speaking, libraries get involved because they want to see certain topic areas improved, and so like to know how granting you access has done so, or how it will do so.

It's a good idea to work out a plan at the outset to ensure it's something agreeable to all parties. Do let the sponsor know if they suggest a check-in frequency that's more than you're comfortable with. They appreciate that you are a volunteer, and while some Scholars look forward to engaging with the library, others prefer to focus on their editing. When asked for a recommendation, we suggest a check-in every month or two, with other communication on an as-needed basis.

Tracking work

At the outset of the Visiting Scholarship, Wiki Ed will create a page for it on the Dashboard, a tool that makes it easy for the sponsor to see which articles you've improved or plan to improve. The Dashboard automatically keeps track of the kind of article metrics (pageviews, for example) that institutions use to gauge the impact of the projects they get involved with. The only thing you have to do is visit the Dashboard page and add the names of articles you work on.

Goals

Most Visiting Scholars have some flexible goals set early in the process. Goals are based on a number of factors, such as overlapping topical interests, the importance of various articles to those topics, your experience editing in a particular area, the amount of time you'd like to dedicate, etc. Visiting Scholars are typically experienced Wikipedians, so goals often take advantage of that experience by focusing on improvements to article quality rather than on creating a larger quantity of lower quality articles. A common goal is to aim for a B-class assessment or better, which places an article in the top 2.7% by quality. It's typically a bad idea to include Good Articles or Featured Articles among the goals, especially if you don't have a good amount of experience with those processes already, because of the formalities and necessary involvement of other volunteers.

Goals can be useful, but should not typically be very rigid. We know that you're volunteer editors with other jobs and responsibilities, so it's important there be some fluidity. As a program geared primarily towards active Wikipedia editors, lack of activity is not typically an issue.

Other expectations

Over the course of the Visiting Scholarship, we ask Scholars to write at least one blog post (whether you write more than one is up to you) reflecting on your contributions as Visiting Scholar, including some explanation for how access to the institution's resources helped. This blog post will be on the Wiki Education website (wikiedu.org), and may be cross-posted on a library/institution website or newsletter.

Sometimes an institution will also request a remote presentation or other form of report about your work at the end of the term. These requests should be specified before the relationship formally begins. The requirements of this position are intended to be pretty low intensity; if they become overburdensome or uncomfortable, please say so.

You should not be required to participate in activities unrelated to your use of library materials and improvement of Wikipedia. There are other programs institutions can become involved with if they're looking for someone to train faculty/staff, work with students, present about Wikipedia broadly, or other such activities. Of course, many Scholars do get involved with the institution in other ways. After all, Wikipedians, librarians, researchers, and academics often have a lot in common. Additional collaboration between you and the institution would simply be considered as outside of the Visiting Scholars agreement.

Topic areas and conflict of interest

In the call for applicants, sponsors are asked to specify one or more subject areas for a Visiting Scholar to work on. The application in turn asks Scholars to speak to your own interest in and experience with those subjects. Before you start, clarify that you and the sponsor understand the scope of these topics. We suggest discussing specific article examples to clarify that you're thinking about the topic in similar ways.

When a Wikipedian forms a relationship with an outside institution, it's important to remember Wikipedia's policies and guidelines regarding conflict of interest and neutral point of view. Visiting Scholars should not promote the university or its financial interests. In general, you should not be required to work on articles about the university, its centers, or its faculty, but you are not prohibited from doing so insofar as those subjects relate to the broader topic area you're working on. Similarly, you should not be asked to prioritize citations of faculty publications, but again you're not prohibited from citing them where those publications are the best possible sources for a given purpose. In general, although the institution sets the general topic area, selection of specific articles to improve should either be a collaborative process or left up to the Scholar. In particular, there is a potential for conflict of interest in any scenario where a Scholar's editing is directed rather than empowered by an institution.

Conflict of interest rules on Wikipedia include a lot of gray area. If you have questions, please reach out to visitingscholarswikiedu.org.