Wikipedia:Wiki Science Competition 2023 in the United States



in the United States



The Wiki Science Competition is an international science photography competition being held during November 1 through December 31, 2023. Wikimedia District of Columbia is organizing the United States arm of the competition. The competition was first organized in Estonia, expanded to all of Europe in 2015, and to the rest of the world in 2017.

To participate, you must be the author of photos you upload, and must have the rights to upload them. The photos should be of a good quality and size, and need to have a good description including what the image depicts, how and where it was made, and what is important to notice about it. It is encouraged to add the images to appropriate Commons categories. For more details, see the full international rules. '''Important: make sure that under Preferences, "Allow other users to email me" is enabled. If we can't contact you, you can't win!'''

See all photographs uploaded from the U.S.! Use the hashtags  #WSC2023 #WikiScience #WikiScience2023 to spread the word about the competition!

Categories and prizes
The competition is divided into seven categories. The U.S. jury will select five finalists from each category to submit to the international competition. The categories are:
 * People in science. Got a photograph of a Nobel Prize winner you've always wanted to upload?  Or perhaps your dissertation advisor?  Maybe your benchmate?  We want your photos of scientists!  (Especially if they're wearing proper PPE of course!)
 * Microscopy. Photos of small things can be big contributions!
 * Astronomy. New for this year!  Photos of big things can be big contributions too!
 * Non-photographic media. We know you have a really cool diagram you made; or a computer-generated image; or even audio or video of a research result, or a scientific method being performed.
 * Image sets. Because sometimes, one just isn't enough!  This category is for sets of three to ten thematically linked images.
 * Wildlife and nature. Do you love taking long walks in the woods, desert, or mountains?  This category is for the wild organisms you find growing or living in nature, including macro photography.
 * General. Everything else. Examples include: archaeology, volcanology, X-ray images, ...

Wikimedia District of Columbia is again sponsoring "Jury's Choice" prizes. More information coming soon!

Can I upload that photograph?
Determining the copyright status of images can be tricky. The guidance should tell you whether you can upload your photograph. If you have any questions, please contact us on the talk page. Note that these guidelines are U.S.-specific and may not apply to other countries.


 * In general, publication status determines whether you can upload an image.


 * If the image is unpublished, you generally have the rights to upload it. University and government intellectual property agreements usually do not cover copyright in text or images.  If you work for a for-profit company, check with your employer.
 * If the image is published in a journal, you need to check the journal's copyright agreement. When you publish in a journal, you usually transfer the copyright to them, and you no longer own the rights to the images.  The exceptions are if the article is published under an acceptable Creative Commons or other free-content license (such as PLOS journals), or under an arrangement where you retain copyright (such as Nature journals).  Additionally, authors usually retain the copyright to Supplementary Information documents, so you can upload those.  SHERPA/RoMEO is a tool that can tell you the copyright status of articles submitted to any scientific journal.


 * However, there are some types of images that can always be uploaded regardless of publication status.


 * If you are an employee of the U.S. federal government or the California or Florida state governments, then images you create as part of your job are in the public domain and can be uploaded regardless of their publication status. This does not apply to contractors, and it does not apply if any non-employees were co-authors of the image.  Note that there are some Florida agencies that are exceptions to this, including all state universities and colleges; see Template:PD-FLGov for a full list.
 * Some types of images are never eligible for copyright, and can be uploaded. These are images that do not meet the threshold of human creativity required by U.S. copyright law, usually because they are too simple, represent commonly known data, or are products of nature.  Examples include chemical structural formulas, medical diagnostic images, diagrams of knots, and monkey selfies.  Please use the appropriate copyright tag when uploading these images.