Talk:Vishva Dixit

COI tag (June 2022)
Large changes made by who claims to be in "collaboration with Vishva Dixit to clean up his page"  Grey joy talk 05:59, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Scribista has declared a COI, and confirms that they conducted paid editing on behalf of Vishva Dixit.  Grey joy talk 04:26, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

I am an experienced Wikipedia editor and a paid consultant at WhiteHatWiki.com who was recently hired by Vishva Dixit, the subject of the article, to help clean up the mess created by the very inexperienced COI editor, User: Scribista. Scribista had, in fact, never done any Wikipedia editing before or since this article. I was not involved in the previous edits to this page by this user or anyone else, nor was anyone at my agency.

You have indicated in the tag you placed on the article that it requires clean-up because of the paid editor, particularly with WP:NPOV. I certainly agree. You already did some clean up. In order to facilitate the remaining work, I have carefully reviewed all 37 additions to this article by Scribista, which appeared between June 21, 2021 and June 23, 2022. I found many other items that need to be fixed.

I was hoping you might take the time to review the following requests to correct the remaining content and NPOV issues created by Scribista. I am happy to assist in any way I can.

1. In the Infobox “Awards” section, after the first three awards, and beginning with and including the fourth award (Foreign Member of The Royal Society (ForMemRS)) please remove all the remaining awards.

Reason: The excessive detail about awards (12 of them) reads like a resume.

2. In the Early life and education section, please replace the consecutive sentences, starting with “Vishva Dixit was born…” and ending with the sentence “During medical school…”

To:

Vishva Dixit was born in Kenya in 1956. His parents were both physicians, working for the British colonial authorities. Dixit was interested in science from an early age, and his parents encouraged him to pursue a career in medicine. He graduated in 1980 from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, becoming a medical doctor.

Reason: Replaces unreliable sources. Removes statements not supported in reliable sources. Removes/replaces non-neutral language. Using credible primary sources to enhance secondary sources as per WP:BLPPRIMARY.

3. In the Career section (and current Academia subsection), please change the sentence:

He told Nature that he decided to pursue pathology because he has always been fascinated by death and wanted to “do something in science that would influence the lives of people.”

To:

He decided to pursue pathology because he had been interested in the process of death since childhood and pathology offered more research options across medical disciplines.

Reason: More closely summarizes the source. Replaces non-neutral language.

4. In the Career section (and current Academia subsection) please remove the three consecutive sentences:

Encouraged to train in research as part of the residency program, Dixit found a position in the lab of biochemistry professor William Frazier and became involved in a project on thrombospondin, a protein in the extracellular matrix. The project's success a few years later resulted in a number of publications. Congruent with his research, Dixit chose to specialize in hemostasis and thrombosis during his last year of clinical training.

Reason: These sentences rely on content that is the subject’s own words in a Q&A, thus not reliable.

5. In the Career section (and current Academia subsection) please replace the following consecutive sentences:

From 1986 to 1997, he was associated with the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, where he rose through the ranks from assistant professor to associate and then full professor. During his early years as an assistant professor, Dixit's research focused on thrombospondin. In 1991, he changed fields and began investigating cell death, the subject in which he would make landmark discoveries and gain worldwide recognition.

To:

In 1986 he joined the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Pathology as an associate professor, eventually becoming a full professor.

Reason: Replaces a primary source in the form of the subject’s own words in a published interview, with a reliable secondary sources. Using credible primary sources to enhance secondary sources as per WP:BLPPRIMARY.

6. In the Career section, under the subsection entitled Genentech please change the three consecutive sentences:

In 1997, Dixit became the Director of Molecular Oncology at Genentech, a company known for focusing on high-quality research in an informal atmosphere and viewed as a cross between academia and industry.

To:

In 1997, Dixit became the Director of Molecular Oncology at Genentech. In 2009 he led the Department of Physiological Chemistry. As of 2016 he held the position of Vice President of Discovery Research, and oversaw Genentech's postdoctoral program.

Reason: Replaces unreliable primary sources with reliable secondary sources. Removes language not supported in reliable sources.

7. In the Awards and Honors section, please change the sentence:

Dixit is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, The Royal Society (ForMemRS), and The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

To:

Dixit is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Reason: Replaces source that does not support the facts; eliminates excessive detail that reads like a resume.

8. In the Awards and Honors section, please eliminate the sentence:

He was also on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2009 and 2020.

Reason: Excessive detail. Reads like a resume. BC1278 (talk) 21:10, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * no issue with these edits, edits made.  Grey joy talk 12:44, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much for reviewing the request edits. I have discovered that one of the nine awards I proposed cutting in the Infobox is actually for a very significant scientific honor -  Foreign Member of the Royal Society. It's still in the body of the article. I had hoped you might restore it to the Infobox awards. As you can see from the Wikipedia page, becoming a Royal Society member is an honor that goes back several hundred years. Fellows include Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking. It's like winning on Oscar if you're a scientist.


 * This would be the fourth award in the Infobox, as opposed to the 12 that there before the previous request edits. All four of the awards are high honors, only for eminent scientists. The citation is: Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRs). . Thanks for considering this. BC1278 (talk) 18:51, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Done.  Grey joy talk 20:07, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

cleanup request
I am a paid editor, so I cannot make edits. I am requesting cleanup of this page so that the following header can be removed: This article contains paid contributions. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page.

Thank you. Scribista (talk) 05:30, 27 June 2022 (UTC)


 * You should work this out with User:Greyjoy, who added the tag. --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 15:12, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Vishva Dixit Edit Request corrections January 2023
Hello. There are corrections and updates I would request to be made for this Wikipedia page. I have a conflict of interest as an employee of Genentech, where Vishva Dixit is an employee. Please consider the following updates:


 * 1. In the Academia subsection, please change the sentence beginning with “In 1986 he joined the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Pathology…”

To:

In 1986 he joined the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Pathology as an assistant professor, eventually becoming a full professor.

Reason: Corrects for a factual inaccuracy about the subject’s academic rank when hired by the university. Removes the source that provided the inaccuracy and keeps the source that was accurate.


 * 2. In the Genentech subsection, please remove the sentences:

In 2005, he was appointed Vice President of Discovery Research and in 2007, took over leadership of the Department of Physiological Chemistry. He later became the Vice President of Discovery Research, while maintaining responsibility for the Department of Physiological Chemistry. He also oversees Genentech's postdoctoral program.

Reason: The first two sentences are not reliably sourced. The third sentence repeats something in an earlier sentence. The original request edit asking for their removal was unclear and ambiguous (asked to remove 3 consecutive sentences when there were actually four), and that is probably why these sentences currently remain. All correct information is now covered in earlier sentences.


 * 3. In the Notable research discoveries section, please remove the sentence:

His work on apoptosis is taught in biomedical textbooks.

Reason: Sentence is not sourced.


 * 4. In the Awards and Honors section, after the two consecutive sentences, first beginning with “In 2018, Dixit received the Cell Death & Differentiation (CDD)...” please add the following sentence as a new paragraph:

In 2021, he was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRs).

Reason: This is a significant award (with a related Wikipedia page) that is reliably sourced - though Primary, since it’s an important award, I think this should be enough. The award is already in the Infobox and I saw in a previous round an independent editor reviewing a proposal approved it for that.


 * 5. In the Awards and Honors section, after the sentence beginning with “In 2022, Dixit received the Vilcek Prize”, please add an additional sentence:

He also received in 2022 the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology.

Reason: This is a significant award with a high-quality reliable source from the world of academia. It has a Wikipedia page.

Thank you! 40Sapir (talk) 20:57, 2 February 2023 (UTC) 40Sapir (talk) 20:57, 2 February 2023 (UTC)


 * Pictogram voting keep.svg Go ahead: I have reviewed these proposed changes and suggest that you go ahead and make the proposed changes to the page. Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 05:19, 4 May 2023 (UTC)