WikiCred/2022 CFP/Mapping and bridging the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on Wikipedia
The overall aim of the project is to strengthen the information related to women’s health on Wikipedia.
| Mapping and bridging the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on Wikipedia | |
|---|---|
| A WikiCred 2022 Grant Proposal | |
| Project Type | Research + Output |
| Author | (User: Netha Hussain, User: Japleenpasricha, User:Mssemantics) |
| Contact | nethahussain gmail.com |
| Requested amount | 6400 USD |
| Award amount | 6400 USD |
- What is your idea?
The research part of the project aims to map the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on English Wikipedia and curate resources [text, citations, data] that are useful for bridging these gaps.
WikiProject: Women’s Health is an existing project on English Wikipedia, which is not active as of 2022. This project will be revived as a part of the research conducted for this project. This Wikiproject has a total of 2,732 articles under its scope, but they have not been classified into groups using relevant navboxes. As a part of the current project, existing articles related to women’s health will be classified and documented within navboxes. These articles, if unassessed, will be assessed for quality according to the content assessment guideline.
The content gaps related to women’s health will then be mapped and the missing topics/sections and sections will be listed. This will be accomplished by performing literature search in medical textbooks and encyclopaedias, as well as by conducting relevant queries on Wikidata. These missing topics will be presented in list format.
The high quality sources for bridging the identified knowledge gaps will be collected via literature searches in PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct and Web of Science as well as the websites of reputed public health organisations such as the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These sources will be listed alongside the missing topics, so that Wikipedia editors can use them to create and expand articles related to women’s health.
The outreach part of the project aims to conduct edit-a-thons and a writing contest for bridging parts of the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on Wikipedia in English, Malayalam and possibly other Indian languages. In association with Feminism In India, two in-person edit-a-thons will be conducted in New Delhi, India where newcomers, Wikimedians, and women’s health experts come together to write articles to bridge some of the knowledge gaps identified as a part of the project.
A writing contest lasting for one month with the theme ‘Women’s Health’ will be conducted in Malayalam Wikipedia in connection with Women’s History Month in 2023. A similar past edit-a-thon for vaccine safety in 2021 on Malayalam Wikipedia yielded 867 new articles, each with at least 3000 bytes of data. We anticipate similar results for the proposed women’s health edit-a-thon in March 2023.
The outcomes of the project will be finally integrated into WikiProject: Women’s Health. The results of the project will be communicated via social media and blogs.
- Why is it important?
Women’s health is a long neglected topic in academia and popular science. There is a stigma associated with discussing women's health, particularly maternal and reproductive health in many countries and cultures. In this context, it is important that reliable and updated information about women’s health is made available on the internet.
Wikipedia is the largest encyclopaedia, with its English language version containing over 6 million articles. Research has shown that Wikipedia is lacking in gender diversity, both in terms of content as well as participation of women. Furthermore, women’s health related information were found to be neglected on English Wikipedia and Wikipedia editors have frequently commented that knowledge gaps exist in articles related to women’s health on English Wikipedia. Therefore, it becomes important to map the knowledge gaps related to women’s health, curate resources for bridging these gaps, and conduct events to encourage editors to bridge these gaps.
- Link(s) to your resume or anything else (CV, GitHub, etc.) that may be relevant
Netha Hussain on Linkedin, Japleen Pasricha on Feminism In India and Amanda Menking on Linkedin
- Is your project already in progress?
WikiProject: Women’s Health was started in 2015 with the aim of assessing existing articles, finding knowledge gaps and improving articles related to women’s health on English Wikipedia. Netha Hussain (NH) was an active participant of the project in 2016-17. However, as of 2022, this project is largely inactive and many of its founding editors are also inactive. This WikiProject will be revived as a part of the current project that we are seeking funding for.
Japleen Pasricha (JP) has been conducting edit-a-thons with themes surrounding women’s health, such as safe abortion and women’s well-being. She will continue to conduct edit-a-thons based on the knowledge gaps identified as a part of the current project.
Amanda Menking (AM) has researched about women’s health information and WikiProject: Women’s Health. Insights and conclusions from her research will be used for understanding and documenting the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on English Wikipedia.
- How is this project relevant to credibility and Wikipedia?
Knowledge gaps undermine the credibility of Wikipedia. By mapping the knowledge gaps, curating high quality literature and conducting edit-a-thons, this project is likely to increase the credibility of Wikipedia articles related to women’s health.
- What is the ultimate impact of this project?
The ultimate impact of this project is to increase the credibility of Wikipedia as a source of information related to women’s health, including reproductive health.
- Can your project scale?
Yes, similar mapping can be started for other topics, not limited to healthcare. The resources and project pages built for the edit-a-thons can be reused in related outreach events. The references and Wikipedia-compatible images captured as a part of the current project can be used in other language editions of Wikipedia. The toolkit created for the online writing contest on Malayalam Wikipedia can be reused for similar edit-a-thons.
- Why are you the people to do it?
Netha Hussain (NH)
Netha Hussain is a medical doctor and researcher. She has a PhD in neuroscience and is presently working as a resident radiologist in Sweden. She has been an editor on Wikimedia projects for the last 12 years, and has contributed to numerous articles related to medicine and healthcare on English and Malayalam language Wikipedia. Some of her notable work includes articles related to healthcare misinformation, women’s health, COVID-19 and biographies of women. She has previously conducted edit-a-thons for bridging the knowledge gaps on Wikipedia related to women’s biographies and vaccine safety. She has previously initiated a GLAM partnership where images and educational content related to pathology were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. In 2020, she launched the Vaccine Safety Project which aimed at mapping the knowledge gaps related to vaccines and documenting resources for bridging these knowledge gaps.
NH will be performing the necessary research for mapping the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on English Wikipedia. She will also collect and curate resources for bridging these knowledge gaps. In addition, she will be involved in planning and organising the edit-a-thons for bridging the knowledge gaps identified as a part of this project.
Japleen Pasricha (JP)
Japleen Pasricha is the founder-CEO of Feminism in India, a digital intersectional feminist media platform. She has been a Wikimedian since 2014, and has organised several Wikipedia edit-a-thons in India related to women’s biographies and women’s health in the past. She is also a TEDx speaker and a UN World Summit Young Innovator. Feminism in India has collaborated with organisations like Punjabi Wikimedians, queer rights organisation Gaylaxy Magazine, Breakthrough India, CIS-A2K, the Swedish Embassy in New Delhi among others to conduct edit-a-thons.
JP will be primarily involved in the planning and on-site execution of the edit-a-thons. She will also work as a trainer to help newcomers to edit/create their first Wikipedia article.
Amanda Menking (AM)
Amanda Menking is a researcher and writer living in the United States of America with interests at the intersections of social computing systems, knowledge production, and gender. Her PhD dissertation examined women’s health information on the English language Wikipedia (Menking, 2019). She’s also published a study about the challenges of illustrating women’s health articles on English Wikipedia (Menking & McDonald, 2020).
AM will be participating in this project as an advisor.
- What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
- This project addresses women’s health, a long neglected topic in science. In strengthening the information related to women’s health, the diversity of content on Wikipedia will be improved.
- The in-person edit-a-thons conducted as a part of the project will be conducted by Feminism in India, an Indian NGO in New Delhi. The participants of the edit-a-thons will be primarily women.
- The online writing contest conducted as a part of the project will be on Malayalam language Wikipedia, a medium sized Wikipedia with around 100 active editors.
- What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
One of the challenges associated with the project is for NH and JP to plan the edit-a-thons via online meetings instead of face-to-face meetings. However, since both NH and JP are experienced editors and outreach leaders, they should be able to coordinate via online meetings and documentations on metawiki.
- How will you spend your funds?
- Research regarding knowledge gaps and relevant resources, planning of the edit-a-thon and execution of the writing contest on Malayalam Wikipedia (NH) [4000 USD]
- Food and drinks at the edit-a-thons [400 USD]
- Venue for the edit-a-thons [400 USD]
- Office supplies, consumables and swag [200 USD]
- Planning, event management, logistics and documentation of the edit-a-thons (JP) [1000 USD]
- Amazon gift cards for writing contest on Malayalam Wikipedia [300 USD]
- Amazon gift cards as honorarium for the judges of the writing contest [100 USD]
- How long will your project take?
The duration of the project will be from December 2022 - April 2023 (5 months, part time).
The research part of the project requires two months of part time work. NH will perform the research between December 2022 - January 2023. Continued updation of the research content after two months will be done on a smaller scale by NH in her capacity as a volunteer.
The outreach part of the project for conducting edit-a-thons to bridge the identified knowledge gaps will be conducted in February - March 2023 in association with Feminism In India. JP will coordinate the edit-a-thons on-site, while both NH and JP will be involved in the planning of the edit-a-thons. The writing contest on Malayalam Wikipedia will be coordinated by NH in March 2023 as a part of the yearly Women’s History Month campaigns on Malayalam Wikipedia. The results of the writing contest will be announced in April 2023 and the winners will be awarded Amazon gift cards. Three experienced Wikimedians from Malayalam Wikipedia will be identified as judges for the event and an honorarium will be provided to them for their work.
- Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
NH has worked on a previous WikiCred grant to map and bridge the knowledge gaps related to Vaccine Safety in 2020. The current project covers a broader topic area than the previous project, and is expected to involve more extensive research and documentation than the previous project.