RESEARCH COMMUNICATION. Wikipedia is now considered a reliable source of information, and has great potential for scientists who want to reach out with their research. Feel free to contact the Academy’s Communications Department for support if you would like to get strated in using Wikipedia in your research communication.
Contact Pontus Sundén if you have questions about Wikipedia: pontus.sunden@gu.se or 031-786 3287.
Wikipedia is now accepted as a reliable information source, ever since the scientific journal Nature in 2005 presented an analysis that compared the distinguished encyclopedia Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia. The analysis showed that both are equally reliable but that Wikipedia overall is more updated.This digital encyclopedia is having an increasingly more important role as a channel for researchers’ task to disseminate the results of their research.
“Many scientists have realized that an hour of writing in Wikipedia provides an incredible exchange when you see how many people that find that little bit of information”, says Sara Mörtsell, training manager at Wikimedia Sweden, to Curie.
Extend the scope
Sara Mörtell helps researchers, teachers, students and communications professionals to use Wikipedia. She also has contacts with both Chalmers and University of Gothenburg, who is getting ready to create structures to make it easier for researchers to use Wikipedia as a channel for their research communication.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has used Wikipedia the longest of all Swedish Universities, ever since 2013. By now, SLU researchers have contributed with at least 1500 edits in 13 languages. An example from SLU is a study that showed that the willow tit, a small bird in the tit family Paridae, had decreased in number because of large-scale forest clearing. The research results were spread in a press release, which doubled the number of searches on willow tit on Wikipedia.
“Since there is a huge interest for small birds in Sweden many turn to Wikipedia and there, the scientists had seen to it that the text was updated. This way you can extend the scope of research”, says Sara Mörtsell in the Curie interview.
This article is a summary of the Research Council’s newspaper Curie. Here you can read the full article (Swedish only):
http://www.tidningencurie.se/22/nyheter/nyheter/2016-04-26-forskning-sprids-brett-via-wikipedia
