The document summarizes a talk given by Spencer Bliven, Andreas Prlic, and Philip Bourne about scientists contributing to Wikipedia through PLoS Computational Biology Topic Pages. It describes Wikipedia as the largest online journal and notes that few scientists currently contribute. It then outlines PLoS Comp Bio's Topic Page program, which publishes open peer-reviewed articles in Wiki markup about computational biology topics to encourage scientist contributions to Wikipedia.

1. BOSC 2012 Talk
Why Scientists should contribute to
Wikipedia
Reconciling publish-or-perish with open access
through PLoS Comp Biol Topic Pages
Spencer Bliven, Andreas Prlić, Philip Bourne
University of California, San Diego

2. BOSC 2012 Talk
Why Scientists should contribute to
Wikipedia
Reconciling publish-or-perish with open access
through PLoS Comp Biol Topic Pages
Spencer Bliven, Andreas Prlić, Philip Bourne
University of California, San Diego
Full Disclosure:
PLoS Comp Bio Editors

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Wikipedia is the largest journal
• Currently 6th most-popular site (Alexa)
• 285 Languages
• 4,000,285 articles in English
• Over 1,000 new articles per day
• PLoS:ONE published 13,595 articles 2007-10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_in_volumes

4. Spencer Bliven, Andreas Prlic, Philip Bourne 4
BOSC 2012 Talk
Scientists Contributing to Wikipedia
“ Nature surveyed more than 1,000 Nature
authors and found that although more than
70% had heard of Wikipedia and 17% of those
consulted it on a weekly basis, less than 10%
help to update it. The steady trickle of
scientists who have contributed to articles
describe the experience as rewarding, if
occasionally frustrating”
- Jim Giles
Nature 438, 900-901 (15 December 2005)

5. Spencer Bliven, Andreas Prlic, Philip Bourne 5
BOSC 2012 Talk
Why Don’t Scientists Contribute More
1. Perceived inaccuracies
• Comparable accuracy to other Encyclopedias
o Nature 438, 900-901 (15 December 2005)
o Dorothee Wiegand: "Entdeckungsreise. Digitale
Enzyklopädien erklären die Welt." c't 6/2007, March 5,
2007, p. 136-145
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia
2. Little time for outreach activities
3. No direct attribution or citation

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Dangling the Carrot
3(1) 41-59
SC omp Biol.
(201 2 ) PL o
WikiU ser et al.
“Running Man” by Hector Gomez

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BOSC 2012 Talk
PLoS Comp Bio’s Solution

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Topic Pages
• Peer reviewed (Open Review)
• CC-BY license
• Similar to Review article
• Accessible language, minimal jargon
• Drafted in Wiki markup
• Full drafting history included as Supplemental
Material

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Major Differences
License
Primary, peer-reviewed Secondary, encyclopedic
References
articles sources
Explicit, limited number “Ownership” discouraged.
Authorship
of authors Authors in page history
Content Abstract, Conclusions Lead, Hyperlinks
Technology Word documents Wiki markup and XML
Original Research Required Forbidden
Reluctant Reviewers,
Culture Opinionated crowd
Polite Editor

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Topic Page Process
1. Find computational biology topic not covered
by Wikipedia
2. Create account on the drafting wiki:
http://topicpages.ploscompbiol.org
Mikael Sunnåker, Alberto Giovanni Busetto, Elina Numminen, Jukka Corander, Matthieu Foll, Christophe Dessimoz

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Topic Page Process
3. Draft article according to PLoS & Wikipedia
guidelines
4. Pass open peer review on Talk page
Miguel A. Fortuna, Luis Zaman, Aaron P. Wagner, Charles Ofria

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Topic Page Process
5. On publication date, copy article to Wikipedia!

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Current Pages
Planned
PLoSWiki
Submitted
Published
0 5 10 15 20
Number of Topic Pages at each stage
• 25 Registered PLoSWiki users (authors, editors, and reviewers)

14. Spencer Bliven, Andreas Prlic, Philip Bourne 14
BOSC 2012 Talk
User Profiles
Phil Bourne
PI & Editor-in-chief of PLoS:Comp Bio
Andreas Prlić [[User:Andorsch]]
Co-author
Shoshana Wodak
Daniel Mietchen
Topic Page Editors

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Resources
• Email ploscompbiol@plos.org to get started
• See guidelines at
http://topicpages.ploscompbiol.org/wiki/Topic_Pages or
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/attachments/topicpages.pdf
• Visit Andreas or I at the PLoS booth during ISMB
– Andreas: Tuesday 1-1:15
– Spencer: Monday 2-2:15
• Poster #16
• Read the editorial:
– Wodak SJ, Mietchen D, Collings AM, Russell RB,
Bourne PE (2012) Topic Pages: PLoS Computational
Biology Meets Wikipedia. PLoS Comput Biol 8(3):
e1002446

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BOSC 2012 Talk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

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BOSC 2012 Talk
Coverage of Science Articles
WikiProject Number of Articles
Science 1,629
Biology 1,797
Physics 16,371
Chemistry 6,202
Computer Science 3,811
Molecular & Cellular Biology 21,834
Computational Biology 1,104