Wikipedia:WikiProject MedievalWiki/resources

Getting started!

 * Check out the MedievalWiki To Do List for lists of scholars, artists, and medieval topic pages that we (self selecting MedievalWiki folks!) think need some attention. Please add to this list! If you're not ready to make pages yet, it can be a great start helping to build these to do lists for others.


 * Choose a topic page that you know lots about. Can you improve citations, and ensure that women, scholars of colour, queer scholars, and all manner of new interpretations and ideas are present on the page?


 * Why not 'search for pages containing...' your favourite medieval scholar? Make sure that they are cited across pages and topics that are relevant to their work. This can be more helpful for getting their work 'out there', and easier to pass notability criteria, than creating biography pages for individual scholars!


 * Biographies are, however, important. Make sure that you link those pages to other relevant pages once you are done!

Notability
Not all scholars, artists, and writers will be considered 'notable' by the Wikipedia community. See these guides for what constitutes a notable academic, and on notability in general. Of course, some of the criteria serve as barriers especially for women and PoC, so it is up to us to pull together the citations and put our case forward! You might find that a page you create or edits you make are challenged, so be prepared to state your case (and ask for backup from fellow medievalwiki editors).

Can you help with sources?
Tip: If you are struggling to find open-source secondary sources regarding a particular scholarly argument, or biographical details of a person's achievements or history of a group, then why not make a source? Publishing on academic society or university blogs is an excellent way to create the references that some people may be lacking.

Useful guidance
Editorial guidance to consider when writing about women.

Wikipedia has useful guidance for writing biographies about living people.

Citation tool for generating references from Google Books http://reftag.appspot.com/

PDF of 'Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia', by Joseph Michael Reagle. See especially the Chapter 'Nazis and Norms'

History of the discipline sources

 * Women Medievalists and the Academy, ed. by Jane Chance (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005)
 * Medieval scholarship : biographical studies on the formation of a discipline, Helen Damico (London: 2000)
 * Interpreters of early medieval Britain, ed. by Michael Lapidge (Oxford :The British Academy, Oxford University Press, 2002)