Credit: Romaine, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
Fourth session of FPN Historical Book Review on 10 May 2017, Maastricht University College
APS and Wiki Education (WikiEdu) facilitate courses on learning to contribute to Wikidata, the structured, open data repository that makes Wikipedia machine-readable. Wikidata often provides the initial search responses generated by Google, Alexa, and other search engines and digital voice assistants.
Sara Mörtsell (WMSE), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Room full of women wikipedia writers
APS, using courses provided by Wiki Education (WikiEdu), educates physicists in creating and editing Wikipedia entries. As of February 2022, less than twenty percent of the biographies on Wikipedia were about women, and the statistics for underrepresented groups were no better. Many of our Wikipedia courses focus on elevating the visibility of women and other historically marginalized groups in the physics community. Through these courses, participants can become effective science communicators, reach a global audience, and build public trust in science.
For past course participants in need of a refresher or physicists looking to learn about Wikipedia editing:
The WikiEdu Blog provides additional information about the success of the Wikipedia editing courses and participants' work in raising awareness of underrepresented individuals in physics and communicating trustworthy and accurate science with the general public.
To learn more about the courses with WikiEdu, including financial assistance available, or if you are interested in sponsoring students in the course, please contact public-engagement@aps.org.
You can also find more information through the Wiki Scientist Program.
Join our mailing list to be alerted when there is an upcoming Wiki training course or an edit-a-thon event.
Participants find the courses to be both informative and transformative in their approach to science communication, teaching, and career exploration:
“Going forward, I aim to incorporate this into my teaching; I presently ask students to research a woman physicist for one assignment, and I plan to expand on this idea by having students find sources on a notable woman in physics who does not yet have a Wikipedia page. I now have the resources to guide them on selecting a subject and on researching.”
–Andrew Seredinski, physics faculty member, Wentworth Institute of Technology
“I consider that what I learned about how this kind of text must be written (use of neutral tone, how to find and use of reliable sources, etc.) could be a starting point to pursue a career as a scientific communicator.”
–Isabel Yajaira Rojas Martinez, graduate student, National Autonomous University of Mexico
“The technical writing and publishing skills gained from this experience have significantly improved my abilities as a science communicator…I have also garnered a deeper appreciation for adequate accreditation in scientific literature, especially as it pertains to historically underrepresented groups.”
–William Munizzi, graduate student, Arizona State University