The Wikipedia Library/Processes/Partnership renewal and extension

Renewing a partnership

When coming to the end of a year of a partner's access donation, the team should investigate whether we have evidence that the partnership is being well used and thus worth continuing for another year. Evidence could include:

• Strong link growth, higher than expected without a TWL partnership
• Positive responses to the user survey(s)
• A large number of distributed accounts

If the partnership is one that is worth renewing, you need to complete the following initial steps:

1. At 9 months, query the partner about renewal of accounts and/or expansion of the partnership:
   1. Relay the evidence that the partnership was successful
   2. Ask whether the accounts are indefinite in length, or if they have an expiry date
2. Partner responds positively, and says that they are happy to extend accounts.
3. Query which of the below options makes sense.

When a partnership is renewed, make sure to

1. Let the account coordinator know to add a new column to their spreadsheet to mark renewals (if necessary).
2. Once this is done, update the Sum Users spreadsheet to account for the number of renewals.
3. Note the renewal acceptance and method in the Partner Flow sheet.

Ping and Renew

One strategy for renewal involves the account coordinator pinging editors, either online or offline, asking for confirmation that the editors plan to continue to use the access and would like to see it renewed. This strategy is appropriate under the following conditions:

• The partner is not concerned with the number of editors who have access and/or there are plenty of accounts, with a limited need on a waitlist.
• Renewal is easier within the partner's management system before access expires.

Process

Here is the process we are using with Newspapers.com:

1. About a month before accounts are due to expire, notify editors by email that they must add themselves to the account renewal list at the project page if they want to keep their accounts for another year.
2. Two weeks before accounts are due to expire, leave a message at the talk page of any editors who have not responded to the first message.
3. Pass on the information about renewing editors to the partner, who will ensure that their accounts remain active.

Sample renewal email

Dear Wikipedian,

Your free one-year account with Newspapers.com will end on September 10 2015. Newspapers.com has offered to extend existing accounts by another year. If you wish to keep your account until September 10 2016, please add your name to the Account Renewal list, which you will find here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Newspapers.com#Account_renewal

I'll let Newspapers.com customer support know, and they will extend your subscription.

If you don't want to keep your account for another year, you don't have to do anything. Your account will expire unless I hear from you that you want to keep it.

Feel free to contact me at my talk page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:HazelAB) or leave a message at the Wikipedia Library Newspapers.com Talk page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Newspapers.com) if you have questions or comments.

All the best,

HazelAB

Account coordinator

Reapply

The reapplication option, though less preferable in that it requires rescreening of users by volunteers, provides another option for renewal. The best condition for a complete reapplication process include partnerships with:

• A limited number of accounts available, and a significant wait list.
• Partnerships where a significant portion of users are expected to be not active.
• Partnerships where accounts are easier to distribute as access codes that work for one year.

With some partners the process for renewing access is more complicated than restarting the editor access through a full re-application process. In this case, we need to notify users whose access has expired that they need to reapply to extend access. This is especially a good strategy for partners with limited numbers of accounts. Similarly, partners like HighBeam, which uses access codes rather than email submission, require individual contact with the editor, and individual renewal is needed anyway.

Process

Use the following process when asking editors to reapply:

• About a month before accounts expire for editors, notify all editors that if they want to have continued access they should reapply at the project page.
• Review the editors for access following the criteria laid out in the process for processing accounts. Note: if there are not many accounts to redistribute, you may decide to prioritize editors with a strong usage history of the source and/or new editors with very strong citation and content histories over editors who may have had previous access, but didn't use it frequently, in order to create more opportunities for strong editors to get access to the source.

Complete renewal

When it comes time for extending access for editors, some partnerships meet the following criteria:

• The partner is not concerned with the number of editors who have access,
• The partner is not concerned with volunteer access despite less Wikimedia activity,
• Renewal or extension is best done from within the partner's account management system (as opposed to issuing new codes).

In these cases, we have opted to do a wholesale extension/renewal to simplify the process of managing accounts. JSTOR is the main example of this: in February 2015, we extended all access accounts due to expire by 6 months to simplify the process.

Process

1. Partner chooses to renew accounts on their end using internal account management software.
2. Using a bcc'ed email or through talk page messages notify the editors that their accounts have been extended beyond the initial invite/window of time. When using email, it's absolutely critical to make sure that the emails are bcc'ed otherwise you risk exposing editor personal information.
3. If editors respond that they want to forgo the extension of the accounts (for any reason), collect the names and notify the publisher in batches.

Extending a partnership

If we have distributed all of the allotted accounts for a partnership then we should ask to extend the partnership to more accounts. As with renewing, it helps to present some evidence that the partnership has been popular and/or well used so far.

When asking to renew make a note in your email of:

• Evidence the partnership has been well used so far from link metrics or user surveys.
• The number of users on a waitlist for access (check the signup page for a Waitlist section)

This helps to show that further access would be used well, and that there is demand for more accounts.

When the partner has agreed to extend the partnership:

1. Make sure the account coordinator is aware this is the case, including how many additional accounts they have to distribute
2. Update Partner Flow with the increased total number of accounts
3. Update the signup page with the new total number.