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How do I start? • How do I edit? • Advice for academics • Style recommendations

How do I start?

  

If you are new to Wikipedia, start here. This will give you a bit of background on Wikipedia editing culture, useful advice on choosing a username, as well as show you how to create an account.

Review Wikipedia's guidelines, policies, and standard practices

Wikipedia differs from traditional publishers in that the majority of decisions made on the site are community-moderated and enforced. Before you create an account and start editing, there are just a few guidelines, policies, and standard practices you'll want to get acquainted with.

  1. The Five Pillars of Wikipedia: These foundational principles offer a guiding framework for Wikipedia editing behavior and practices.
  2. Universal Code of Conduct (Outlines both accepted and unaccepted behavior)
  3. Core content policies (The three rules for all content added to Wikipedia)
  4. Point of view and original research from editors, sources, and fields (This source helps you navigate how to use reliable, published, original research to inform articles)
  5. Due and undue weight (How to navigate the inclusion of minority vs. majority views)
  6. Directory of Wikipedia guidelines, policies, and help pages (A comprehensive list of Wikipedia help pages to help answer any follow-up questions you may have)

Choose a username

Once you have a good idea of Wikipedia's guidelines, policies, and standard practices you're ready to choose a good username. Your username will appear alongside every edit you make to Wikipedia. It's important to pick a name you feel both comfortable and confident sharing with a largely anonymous, online body of editors. That being said, there are a few key policies to keep in mind when deciding upon a username:

  • Make sure to pick a username that refers to an individual or single entity (no institutions, single entities, etc).
  • Use common sense and do not pick a username that is misleading, offensive, or disruptive.
Be mindful of. . .

Using your real name in or as your username. It is not against Wikipedia's guidelines to use your real name in your username, but it is important to recognize the risks that come with sharing personally identifiable information on a large online, public platform such as Wikipedia. As an academic, scholar, or expert in your field, there are a few pros and cons to displaying your credentials alongside your real name (i.e. Dr.JaneDoe).

  • Conflict of interest transparency. If it is a part of your paid official duties to edit Wikipedia on behalf of another institution or entity, it is important to disclose this information on your user page. If you do have a COI for whatever reason, providing your real name with your credentials provides an extra layer of transparency when editing, allowing the community to assume good faith.
  • Curb potential disputes. As a potential newcomer to Wikipedia, more experienced Wikipedians may question some of the edits you make, especially if they are a part of a vital or foundational article within a specific field. Having your credentials and name front and center may incline them to ask for further explanation before reverting a new edit.
  • Doxing, harassment, and opposition research. These are some of the worst case scenarios that could occur with using your real name. They rarely occur unless you are a well-known public figure, working on content related to yourself or affiliated with yourself, or you are straying from Wikipedia's code of conduct.

Create an account

Now that you've picked a username, it's time to create an account and start learning how to edit. Although it is not required to add an email address, it is highly recommended to receive notifications about changes to your watched articles.

How do I edit?

  

These resources will walk you through how to both edit and contribute to Wikipedia. You can find more resources for newcomers at the Bookshelf.

Editing basics

Advice for academics

  

These resources will help you navigate specific scenarios on Wikipedia catered to the academic editing experience.

Style recommendations

  

WikiProject Writing has curated and compiled a few guides for navigating the creation of different types of articles on Wikipedia.

Citation style

WikiProject Writing encourages the use of short citations in articles under its scope. Short citations differ from full citations in that they only list the author, date, and page number for the most part (i.e. Doe, p.1). These citations work similarly to that of the automatically generated full citations that appear through the ‘Reference list’ template when using the visual editor. You can read a full overview of short citations here.

NOTE: We are following an in-text MLA citation style within this guide.

How to add citations using the {{sfn}} template in visual editor:

  1. Select visual editor (See visual editor vs. source editor).
  2. Place your cursor at the end of a sentence where you wish to place your short footnote.
  3. Click on 'Insert' in the visual editor tool bar and select 'Template' from the dropdown menu.
  4. Type in 'Sfn' in the search bar and select the template.
  5. You can now fill in the author(s), year, and page number(s). If you wish to add more than two authors, you can select 'Add more information' and choose the option for third or fourth author. You will not be able to fill in more than four authors.
  6. Go to 'Insert' and select 'References list' from the dropdown menu.
  7. Place a 'References' header at the very bottom of the article. This is where your short citations
  8. Publish your edits and you're done!

How to add citations using the {{sfn}} template in source editor:

The short footnote template contains three main parameters ({{sfn|author|date|p=}}). You can hold up to four consecutive authors within these parameters ({{sfn|author|author|author|author|date|p=}}. Any other authors should be omitted in accordance with MLA in-text citations (i.e. Doe et al.).

  1. Select source editor (See visual editor vs. source editor).
  2. Add the short footnote template to the end of the sentence or group of sentences you wish to cite (i.e. Jane is known for her work in the fields of writing and rhetoric.{{sfn}}).
  3. From here you can edit the template to add the author, date, and page number(s) (i.e.{{sfn|Doe|2005|p=42}}).
  4. Add a notes heading at the very bottom of the article and place the {{reflist}} template below it.
  5. Add a references heading and copy and paste the {{reflist}} template below it. This is where your citations will appear under.
  6. Publish your edits and you're done!

Example (transcluded from ‘Citing sources’): 

The Sun is pretty big,<ref>Miller 2005, p. 23.</ref> but the Moon is not so big.<ref>Brown 2006, p. 46.</ref> The Sun is also quite hot.<ref>Miller 2005, p. 34.</ref>

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* Brown, Rebecca (2006). "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 51 (78).
* Miller, Edward (2005). ''The Sun''. Academic Press.

For more information on how to use the short footnote template, head to the template information page.

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