Community Engagement Insights 2016-17 Report

Across audiences Editors Affiliates Program Leaders Developers
Goal 1 - "Improving new editor engagement"
Goal 2 - "Improving community health"
Goal 3 - "Improving collaboration and communications between the Foundation and communities"
Goal 4 - "Improving collaboration and communications around software development"
Goal 5 - "Improving collaboration with affiliates related to partnerships"
Goal 6 - "Improving software for contributors"
Goal 7 - "Increasing software awareness and use"
Goal 8 - "Growing the Wikimedia technical community"
Goal 9 - "Improving information sharing for program leaders and affiliates"
Goal 10 - "Developing the capacity of affiliates"
Goal 11 - "Developing the capacity of program leaders"
Goal 12 - "Improving access to research materials by contributors"


Question 269 (PR01) edit

What types of research tools or resources do you have access to? (select all that apply)

Participants could select more than one option

13% did not select an option [?]

1 – A university library (35%)
2 – A public or government library (56%)
3 – Archival or museum collections (21%)
4 – Other special collections or research libraries (15%)
5 – Other institutional resource (specify): (4%)
6 – Personal subscriptions to academic databases (13%)
7 – Personal subscriptions to newspapers or genealogical databases. (17%)
8 – Personal research collection or privately held library (50%)
9 – Other personal resource (specify): (5%)
56% of survey participants have access to a public or government library, 50% have access to their personal libraries and 35% have access to a university library.


Question 270 (PR02) edit

Over the last 12 months, what have been the top three ways you spent your time as a volunteer working with content on Wikimedia projects?

Participants could select more than one option

1% did not select an option [?]

1 – Article writing, research, and expansion (77%)
2 – Anti vandalism, anti-Copyright Violation, or new content patrol (26%)
3 – Copyediting (28%)
4 – Content quality review, discussions about specific content, and feedback (18%)
5 – Illustrating content with media (14%)
6 – Formatting and Wikifying (20%)
7 – Contributing media (18%)
8 – Enriching media descriptions (3%)
9 – Transcription on Wikisource (3%)
10 – Template development and implementation (5%)
11 – Categorization (15%)
12 – Data enrichment in Wikidata or in Infoboxes and other templates (9%)
13 – Translating any content from one language to another (24%)
14 – Other content work (specify): (4%)


Question 272 (PR03) edit

How often do you search for or use non-Wikimedia resources (books, websites, research papers) when creating content on Wikimedia projects?


Median = 5

1 – Never (3%)
2 – Rarely (4%)
3 – Sometimes (14%)
4 – Often (28%)
5 – Almost always (51%)
79% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported searching or using often or almost always for non-Wikimedia resources (books, websites, research papers) when creating content on Wikimedia projects.


Question 273.01 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...using a search engine (e.g. Yahoo, Google)?


Median = 4

1 – Never (4%)
2 – Rarely (2%)
3 – Sometimes (14%)
4 – Often (31%)
5 – Almost always (48%)
79% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported using using a search engine (e.g. Yahoo, Google) to start research for contributing to Wikipedia articles.


Question 273.02 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...searching on Google Scholar?


Median = 1

1 – Never (58%)
2 – Rarely (15%)
3 – Sometimes (11%)
4 – Often (10%)
5 – Almost always (6%)
16% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported searching on Google Scholar to start research for contributing to Wikipedia articles. 58% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never use Google scholar



Question 273.04 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...looking at recommendations on-wiki?


Median = 2

1 – Never (44%)
2 – Rarely (24%)
3 – Sometimes (20%)
4 – Often (10%)
5 – Almost always (2%)
12% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported starting research by often or almost always looking at recommendations on-wiki. 35% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never start research by looking at recommendations on-wiki.


Question 273.05 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...looking at source recommendations created by other Wikis?


Median = 2

1 – Never (38%)
2 – Rarely (23%)
3 – Sometimes (24%)
4 – Often (13%)
5 – Almost always (4%)
17% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported starting research by often or almost always looking at source recommendations created by other Wikis. 38% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never start research by looking at source recommendations created by other Wikis.


Question 273.06 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...searching in a database that I have access to?


Median = 2

1 – Never (36%)
2 – Rarely (15%)
3 – Sometimes (18%)
4 – Often (21%)
5 – Almost always (10%)
36% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported starting research by often or almost always searching in a database that I have access to. 31% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never start research by searching in a database that I have access to.


Question 273.07 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...going to the library?


Median = 2

1 – Never (42%)
2 – Rarely (21%)
3 – Sometimes (21%)
4 – Often (11%)
5 – Almost always (6%)
17% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported starting research by often or almost always going to the library. 42% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never start research by going to the library.


Question 273.08 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - ...using Open Access repositories or databases?


Median = 2

1 – Never (37%)
2 – Rarely (20%)
3 – Sometimes (19%)
4 – Often (17%)
5 – Almost always (7%)
37% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported starting research by often or almost always using Open Access repositories or databases. 24% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never start research by using Open Access repositories or databases.


Question 273.09 (PR08) edit

When contributing to Wikimedia projects, how often do you start research by... - Other (specify)


Median = 3

1 – Never (37%)
2 – Rarely (3%)
3 – Sometimes (14%)
4 – Often (20%)
5 – Almost always (26%)
46% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported starting research by often or almost always in another way from previous options. 37% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported that they never start research in another way from previous options.


Question 274 (PR06) edit

Have you heard of The Wikipedia Library?


Median = 0

1 – No (77%)
2 – Yes (23%)
23% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported having heard about the Wikipedia Library.


Question 275 (PR07) edit

Which of the following tools, services and resources are you aware of? (select all that apply)

Participants could select more than one option

51% did not select an option [?]

1 – Source sharing / Resource Exchange (WP:RX) (9%)
2 – Wikipedia’s Reference Desk (21%)
3 – Free publisher research access through The Wikipedia Library (11%)
4 – Wikipedia Visiting Scholars (6%)
5 – Open Access Signalling Project and/or OABot (1%)
6 – Book or research grants offered by my local affiliate or chapter (10%)
7 – Internet Archive’s Wikipedia bot to fix dead-links in Wikipedia citations (21%)
8 – The visual editor’s Citoid (3%)
9 – Forward to Libraries (6%)
10 – Special:BookSources (7%)
11 – Wikipedia:Research help (WP:RH) on English Wikipedia only (3%)
12 – The Books & Bytes Wikipedia Library Newsletter (3%)
21% of respondents are familiar with the Wikipedia Library Reference desk and 21% are familiar with Internet Archive’s Wikipedia bot to fix dead-links in Wikipedia citations. It's important to note that 51% of all the respondents who saw the question did not select any option.


Question 276 (PR09) edit

How often do you run into challenges searching for research materials you need for contributing to Wikimedia projects?


Mean = 3.02

1 – Never (9%)
2 – Rarely (17%)
3 – Sometimes (40%)
4 – Often (27%)
5 – Almost always (6%)
33% of sampled editors who participated in the survey reported often or almost always running into challenges searching for research materials needed for contributing to Wikimedia projects.


Question 278 (PR04) edit

Which of the following describe challenges you have when accessing research materials for your Wikimedia work? (select all that apply)

The materials I need..

Participants could select more than one option

4% did not select an option [?]

1 – ... are not available in digital formats (71%)
2 – ... are behind a paywall (67%)
3 – … require me to travel great distances (27%)
4 – ... are only accessible at a library or other provider during my hours of employment (22%)
5 – ... cannot be accessed legally in my location, because of licensing restrictions (22%)
6 – ...are hard to use with my internet access or editing device (9%)
7 – ...for another reason (specify): (5%)
71% of participants selected that resources are not available in digital formats and 67% selected that materials are behind a paywall.

Question list edit

Goal 13 - "Improving understanding of movement fundraising and fundraising needs"
Goal 14 - "Increasing awareness of GLAM and Libraries"
Goal 15 - "Increasing knowledge and capacity related to policy issues"