Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/WikiJournal User Group/2022/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 30 January 2023
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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General information
editThis form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.
- Name of Organization: WikiJournal
- Title of Proposal: WikiJournal User Group/2022
- Amount awarded: 103900 USD, 103900 USD
- Amount spent: 60501.93 USD
Part 1 Understanding your work
edit1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
Accessibility and streamlining was greatly improved via the 'technical editors' who were able to handle repetitive but complex and time sensitive back-of-house tasks which freed up a lot of cognitive load for volunteers and made multiple processes more reliable. The technical infrastructure has also been made significantly more robust - especially multiple aspects of wikidata integration (both via lua modules and bot-mediated). Though, an available developer was not secured for integration with Open Journal Systems and so the work was pushed back to 2023.
As to getting the word out, we have had some modest success in engaging people outside of the USA+Europe as editors, authors, and reviewers (our three main volunteer roles). Much of this will only become evident in the coming year or two (particularly in the 'author' role) because there is significant turnaround time from hearing of the journal -> drafting an article -> submitting for peer review -> going through peer review. Therefore some of these efforts will only be seen in the next year or two.
For expanding the number of journals on aspect went ahead to schedule (collaboration with the PLOS publishing group to move their 'topic pages' format to WikiJournal project space). A separate WikiJournal of Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences was not yet implemented, as the main organiser has a death in the family and the decision was made to postpone to give the best chance of success.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
Leveraging paid staff time in order to make volunteer activities more efficient has significantly reduced burnout, and so making sure we are using these resources at the right points will be particularly useful in future.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
This has been a particularly wikidata-focussed year.
We are aiming to (as far as possible) make as much of our activities and structure documented in wikidata, and draw information back from wikidata. For example this draft page of statistics follow our activities using wikidata queries (https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group/Statistics). Similarly, journal issues are populated by a bot that draws from wikidata (e.g. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_of_Medicine) and lists of editorial board members are annotated with structured data from wikidata (e.g. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_of_Medicine/Editors). These approaches may be useful for other affiliates when documenting some activities.
We are also developing ways of more thoroughly annotating wikidata items with data about publications. Usually, journals keep their peer reviewers fully anonymous indefinitely. We give our reviewers the option of waiving anonymity (75% take us up on this) but even for anonymous peer reviewers, we list their fields of expertise - adding significant extra transparency & auditability to the peer review process. We also are experimenting with even greater depth of description on the process that surrounds an academic publication - for example the wikidata item: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q101116128. Specifications for this process has been published for others to also use as "Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT)".
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
There are a number of ways the current community and potential new community members are kept informed:
Presentations & symposia:
- Wikipedia and Education in the Time of the 'Crisis of Information' Symposium (academics)
- Wikimania (wiki community): WikiJournal had multiple representatives at both the New York and London events.
- Berlin Exchange Medicine Peer Review Crash Course (medical students)
Written material and relevant publications:
- Open meeting minutes (general)
- Mailing list (general)
- https://researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40900-022-00363-9 (academics)
5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group/Meetings
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Agree |
7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
Being an open access journal with no cost for publication or reading, WikiJournal allows people to contribute to and learn knowledge regardless of location and socioeconomic status. It provides an opportunity to everyone to participate in the academic work, and to enrich knowledge across Wikimedia projects.
Part 2: Your main learning
edit8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
Having technical editors assist with time sensitive back-of-house tasks has helped a lot for volunteers to focus on content. However, there are a number time-consuming aspects (administrative, outreach, and project management) that would benefit from more consistent high-end support in the form of a CEO role or similar.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
There have been significant issues in actually paying the technical editor contractor based in Nigeria from the bank account in the USA which has caused unfair delays in paying them compared to those based in North America and Europe.
Securing a developer with the necessary skillset to overcome such a barrier would open up the project more for participation from that region.
10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
Difficulties in money transfer have lead us to explore using the service 'workmarket' which, though expensive, is probably necessary to enable reliable international transfers.
For development, we need some more organised project management to make surer that roadblocks don't fully stall the process of defining requirements, identifying developers and approaching them for quotes.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
It has been extremely helpful to have technical editors that help out with repetitive tasks that help the project in its goal in allowing everyone to participate in research and dissemination of knowledge.
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 3: Metrics
edit13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | There are so far 15 articles published for 2021, and with approximately 2 authors and 2 peer reviewers per article it amounted to approximately 60 mainly new participants. The project hopes to at least double the amount of published articles with the help of the grant. | 120 | |||
| Number of editors | Each author or peer reviewer gets introduced to wiki editing, with the hope of continuing to contribute to Wikimedia Foundation projects in their areas of academic expertise. | 120 | |||
| Number of organizers | The projects hopes to expand its number of board members, associate editors and technical editors beyond the current number of approximately 100. | 20 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikiversity | Published articles are displayed in Wikiversity. Content can then easily be used across Wikimedia projects, according to inclusion criteria by each project. For example, content from review articles that are written with reliable sources may be integrated into Wikipedia articles of the corresponding subject, potentially including dozens of pieces per WikiJournal article. | 200 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
N/A
16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships
edit17. Organizational Capacity
| A. Financial capacity and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| D. Partnership building | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| E. Strategic planning | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| J. Governance | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| M. On-wiki technical skills | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N. Accessing and using data | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N/A | |
| N/A |
17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Peer to peer learning with other community members in conferences/events, Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured), Using capacity building/training resources online from sources WITHIN the Wikimedia Movement
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of staff time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of volunteer time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of financial resources
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
The hiring of technical editors alleviates the workload of the editorial boards. Still, the project is in need of an appointed CEO position to better distribute tasks among technical editors and volunteers.
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
| A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) | Agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Board members’ outreach, Staff hired through the fund, Volunteers from our communities
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of institutional support from the Wikimedia Foundation, Lack of staff to conduct outreach to new strategic partners
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
Interactions with people from different organizations at Wikimania opened up for new potential partnerships. In particular, we met seniors from University of Edinburgh, who may be able to help out in finding peer reviewers for articles.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration
edit21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
With technical editors performing repetitive tasks, volunteer editorial board members find more time to collaborate in article publication decisions, creating a greater sense of belonging and engagement.
22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Increased significantly
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
The fund has ensured the continuity of the project's aim of attracting researchers and scholars to contribute to the open access project, often being introduced to wiki editing and Wikimedia Projects in the process, potentially opening up for engagement in its projects in general.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Increased significantly
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
N/A
26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.
Examples of organizations that inspire to contribute to open access research and publishing thereof include the Committee on Publication Ethics and the Directory of Open Access Journals, and WikiJournal is a member of those organizations.
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration
editWe are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
Partially
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
The project exists in the Wikiversity space, therefore being closely tied to its educational scope, facilitating collaboration between the projects. Likewise, images for articles are uploaded in Wikimedia Commons, making them directly available for use across Wikimedia projects. Also, it is part of the goal for review articles to have eligible content integrated into Wikipedia through collaboration between the sister projects, making Wikipedia reviewers able to learn from published articles.
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
We do this occasionally (less than once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
Meetings are shared publicly: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group/Meetings
Experiences and other knowledge are shared with other participants at Wikimania and other Wikimedia meetups.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance
edit30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
60501.93
31. Local currency type
USD
32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
We are still finalizing the financial report file. It should be available within two weeks.
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future grant request with PO approval
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We are planning on hiring a person for a CEO role or similar in order to provide general leadership of the project, which will benefit from additional spending. Additional funding of technical editors will also be very beneficial for an increase in article submissions and processing thereof.
35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.
36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.