Research:Surveying readers and contributors to Wikipedia

Created
09:21, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
Contact
Collaborators
Nicolas Jullien (IMT Atlantique & Università Ca' Foscari), Léo Joubert (Université de Rouen), Laurent Mell (Marsouin), Jeanne Vermeirsche (Université d'Avignon), Caterina Cruciani (Università Ca' Foscari)
Duration:  2022-September – 2023-December
accessibility, information, reader, contributors, engagement



This project's data is available for download and reuse.
This page documents a completed research project.


Background edit

The campaign aims at surveying the Wikipedia users on how they consider, use the information provided by Wikipedia, according to the context (professional, personal, etc.) It will also ask the contributors specific questions about their participation and their involvement.

It is managed by a group or researchers from several public research institutions, mainly French, coordinated by the research network Marsouin with, we hope, collaboration with the different language communities.

More precisely, the survey aims at addressing the following questions (open list):

  • for the contributors, what does that mean to be a contributor, how it is perceived by their relative, how this impacts their practice, their vision of Wikipedia and of its governance (see the WMF's taxonomy of "gaps", p. 16)
  • for the readers, how they use Wikipedia, but also what does acceptability as a source of information means, according to the context - school, university, information, etc.), for them and for their "audience" (see WMF's taxonomy of "gaps", p. 10)
  • this questionnaire will rely on and expand the one done in 2019 by the WMF (would be happy to have feedback from Isaac_(WMF) or Jmorgan_(WMF).

Again, we would love to have inputs from researchers and members of the community of what questions we could address together!


The survey is inspired by the survey to the French users made by the same team in 2015 and in 2011.
See the results of the former surveys (in French: 2011, 2015).

A test version of the survey is available here:

Methods edit

The data will be collected via an online questionnaire announced with a banner on targeted language (Wikipedia only).

the central notice demand is here

Planned Timeline edit

  • Questionnaire building (3 months)
  • Pilot survey and translation (1 months): running a pilot for testing the questions, their understanding, evaluation for improvements and adaptation to the targeted languages
  • Full survey (2 months): announced via the banners, for 2 weeks on each language; the periods of announcement may vary with translation times and banner calendar
  • Proposed calendar (compatible with other banner requests)
    • 2023-06-01 to 2023-06-14 for en, tr
    • 2023-06-14 to 2023-06-28 for uk, fr, es, pt, de, it
    • 2023-06-28 to 2023-07-11 for pl, ar, nl

Policy, Ethics and Human Subjects Research edit

Research approved by IMT Altlantique's IRB # 132023 (see data paper for detail).

Participating languages edit

We aimed at surveying different languages, via publication of the survey on the languages' pages (banners), during 14 days, to control from the weekly variation and possible specific event one day.

See below the languages surveyed and the period of the survey.

Wikipedia Language Point of Contact Discussion with the community Banner exposure regime Display dates Banner text Landing Page (Survey's page)
Ukrainian User:Antanana 50% 06/14 -> 06/28 Будь ласка, допоможіть нам краще зрозуміти, що саме ви робите у Вікіпедії! Дайте відповіді на запитання цієї анкети, створеної міжнародною групою університетських дослідників та членів спільноти Вікіпедії.

(відповіді збираються поза серверами Фонду Вікімедіа, громадським дослідницьким центром Marsouin.org у Франції)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/951668
Turkish User:Hazalbytk Has started here 50% 06/01 -> 06/15 Lütfen Vikipedi'de ne yaptığınızı daha iyi anlamamıza yardımcı olun! Üniversite araştırmacıları ve Vikipedi topluluğu üyelerinden oluşan uluslararası bir grup tarafından oluşturulan bu anketi yanıtlayarak.

(Yanıtlar Wikimedia Vakfı sunucuları dışında, Fransa'daki kamu araştırma merkezi Marsouin.org tarafından toplanmaktadır)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/868369
French User:jullienn User:LeoJoubert has started here 30% 06/12 -> 06/26 Aidez-nous à mieux comprendre ce que vous faites sur Wikipédia ! En répondant à ce questionnaire créé par un groupe international de chercheurs universitaires et de membres de la communauté Wikipédia.

(Les réponses sont collectées en dehors des serveurs de la Wikimedia Foundation, par le centre de recherche public Marsouin.org, en France)

Landing page: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Enqu%C3%AAte_sur_les_lecteurs_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_2023 (the questionnaire: https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/462711)

Italian User:jullienn has started here 50% 06/17 -> 06/31 Aiutaci a capire meglio cosa fai su Wikipedia! Rispondendo a questo questionario creato da un gruppo internazionale di ricercatori universitari e membri della comunità di Wikipedia.

(Le risposte vano raccolte al di fuori dei server della Wikimedia Foundation, dal centro di ricerca pubblico Marsouin.org, in Francia)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/728883
German 20% 06/28 -> 07/12 Bitte helfen Sie uns, besser zu verstehen, was Sie auf Wikipedia tun! Beantworten Sie diese Umfrage, die von einer internationalen Gruppe von Universitätsforschern und Mitgliedern der Wikipedia-Gemeinschaft erstellt wurde.

(Die Antworten werden außerhalb der Server der Wikimedia Foundation vom öffentlichen Forschungszentrum Marsouin.org in Frankreich gesammelt)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/724154

English User:jullienn has started here 5% 06/02 -> 06/12 and 06/14 -> 06/17 Please help us better understand what you do on Wikipedia!

By responding to this questionnaire created by an international group of university researchers and members of the Wikipedia community.
(Answers are collected outside the Wikimedia Foundation's servers, by the public research center Marsouin.org, in France)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/978939

Spanish User:LeoJoubert has started here 30% 06/27 -> 07/11 ¡Ayúdenos a entender mejor lo que hace en wikipedia! Responde a este cuestionario creado por un grupo internacional de investigadores universitarios y miembros de la comunidad Wikipedia.

(Las respuestas son recogidas fuera de la Fundación Wikimedia, por el centro público de investigación Marsouin.org, en Francia).

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/148792
Portuguese User:Danielly Campos Dias Has started here 30% 06/27 -> 07/11 Ajude-nos a compreender melhor o que faz na Wikipédia! Aceite este inquérito, criado por um grupo internacional de investigadores académicos e membros da comunidade Wikipédia.

(As respostas são recolhidas fora dos servidores da Wikimedia Foundation, pelo centro de investigação público Marsouin.org, em França)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/576355
languages that are finally not been surveyed
Arabic User:Ayoubic 30% Not started yet ساعدنا على فهم ما تفعله على ويكيبيديا بشكل أفضل! في الرد على هذا الاستطلاع تم إنشاؤه بواسطة مجموعة دولية من الباحثين الأكاديميين]وأعضاء مجتمع ويكيبيديا.

(يتم جمع الإجابات خارج خوادم مؤسسة ويكيميديا ، بواسطة مركز الأبحاث العام Marsouin.org ، في فرنسا)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/775647

Dutch 50% Not started yet Help ons beter te begrijpen wat u op Wikipedia doet! Dit kan door te reageren op deze enquête, gemaakt door een internationale groep universitaire onderzoekers en leden van de Wikipedia-gemeenschap.

(De antwoorden worden verzameld buiten de servers van de Wikimedia Foundation, door het openbare onderzoekscentrum Marsouin.org, in Frankrijk.)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/345118
Polish User:Ppt91 has started here 50% not started (yet?) Pomóż nam lepiej zrozumieć, co robisz w Wikipedii! Odpowiadając na ten kwestionariusz stworzony przez międzynarodową grupę badaczy uniwersyteckich i członków społeczności Wikipedii.

(Odpowiedzi są zbierane poza serwerami Fundacji Wikimedia, przez publiczne centrum badawcze Marsouin.org, we Francji)

https://questionnaires.marsouin.org/index.php/826633

Results edit

The data for the first survey have been collected, and are available. They are presented in a data paper. This data paper gives access to the dataset.

References edit