Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Western Michigan University Homer Styker MD School of Medicine/MEDU 9330 - Expanded WikiProject Medicine (August 28 - September 24, 2023)

Students will review content contribution, revising, and editing standards for Wikipedia. They will select an article to create or update through Wiki Project Medicine. Students will peer review then suggest edits to a peer or, if no peer is in the elective with them, the student will edit an existing section of another biomedical topic on WikiMedicine. The students final submission will also be expected to adhere to plain language best practices.

Week 1
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline! This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course.

This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.

Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the &quot;Get Help&quot; button on this page.

To get started, please review the following handouts:


 * Editing Wikipedia
 * Evaluating Wikipedia



Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you, then complete the online training for students. During this training, you'll make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.



This is where we think specifically about how editing Wikipedia as a medical student might differ from editing as a &quot;lay person.&quot; 

Visit Wikipedia's Medicine Stubs page to explore the various medical topics, and choose a stub that is of interest to you that you would like to expand. Be sure to inform your instructor of your chosen topic.

<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 15.008px; line-height: inherit; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #2c2c2c; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">

Post your final outline / workplan to your selected Wikipedia's talk page, so that you can engage with the Wikipedian community members who are interested &amp; actively following your article. If you are working on a team, I want you to be explicit about what section(s) you will individually be responsible for.

Consider explicitly declaring any/all of the following (but don't feel limited to these):


 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * Which sections will you prioritize?
 * What resources do you intend to look up, and when?
 * How will you decide what things (signs, symptoms, side-effects, etc.) to explicitly include? To explicitly exclude?
 * Will you also embed additional links to other Wiki pages?
 * How will you ensure you avoid &quot;doctor-speak&quot; and not use jargon?

Week 2
Here are a few readability tools you can try out:

Online-Utility.org - Readability Calculator

Readability Test Tool

Prepostseo Readability Score Checker

Chemistry

Environmental Science

Genes and Proteins

Medicine

Psychology

Science Communication



It's time to think critically about your peer's Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate one peer's Wikipedia article next week and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.


 * Complete the linked above.
 * Choose a peer's article on Wikipedia to read and evaluate. As you consider the article, attempt to answer the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * Optional: Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — ~.



You've picked a topic and are unpacking sources. Dont' wait to start writing!

Creating a new article?


 * Write an outline of that topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia article's &quot;lead section.&quot; Write it in your sandbox.
 * A &quot;lead&quot; section is not a traditional introduction. It should summarize, very briefly, what the rest of the article will say in detail. The first paragraph should include important, broad facts about the subject. A good example is Ada Lovelace. See Editing Wikipedia page 9 for more ideas.

Improving an existing article?


 * Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your sandbox.

-

Keep reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write the body of the article.

Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9

Week 3


<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 15.008px; line-height: inherit; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #2c2c2c; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">

Please begin peer review process by Wed 09.13.23


 * Post your Review to the talk page of the article you are reviewing.
 * Peer reviews are DUE by end of week 3 = 11:59PM, Sunday, 09.17.23.
 * What should a peer-review look like?


 * *** Peer review guidelines:
 * Check for readability
 * Adherence to topic / Not getting off track
 * Organization &amp; Flow
 * Use of images and figures
 * Proper use of citations
 * Paraphrasing
 * Quality Sources, i.e. resources open to the public
 * Check for bias and equal-sided arguments
 * Provide productive and professional critique

How to conduct peer review in addition to guidelines above?

Wiki Ed offers an assessment rubric for evaluating student contributions to Wikipedia articles. While we will NOT formally use the point system, it does provide a nice complement to our &quot;home-grown&quot; peer-review process.

For more tips on the peer review process, check out Wiley Publishing's Top Tips for Peer Reviewers.

<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 15.008px; line-height: inherit; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #2c2c2c; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">

How to respond to the peer-reviewer's comments?


 * Acknowledge and appreciate their efforts in reviewing your work.
 * Be nice
 * If you disagree with a recommendation, tell the reviewer why you disagree.
 * OK to not respond to everything, but do try to dialogue with your peer-reviewer(s).

Week 4




Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Editing an existing article?


 * NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
 * Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
 * Be sure to copy text from your sandbox while the sandbox page is in 'Edit' mode. This ensures that the formatting is transferred correctly.

Creating a new article?


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
 * You can also review the Sandboxes and Mainspace online training.



Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
 * Consider adding an image to your article. Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take Contributing Images and Media Files training before you upload an image.





It's the final week to develop your article.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
 * Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!
 * Finalize article on Wikipedia
 * Be sure to submit a document to your instructor with snippets that defend your references (in other words, when you cite a reference, take a screenshot or copy the statements from the reference that you are using to author your original statements in your article).