Wikipedia contains 1.5 million citations, and drives more traffic to online scholarly articles than all but five other websites. As a result, Wikipedia is a place where deep carbon scientists can reach a vast audience of scientists and non-scientists alike.
It doesn’t take long to improve an article on Wikipedia. Sometimes a small effort, such as the addition of a new citation or a link to “further reading” about the topic can improve an article. For example, this Nature article was recently added to the page about the deep water cycle:
Wikipedia is what it is because of an involved community of editors; people like you who care about sharing accurate and up-to-date information. Have you noticed Wikipedia is lacking depth about subjects in your field? Or a subject is explained in a slightly inaccurate or misleading way? Then now is the time to put things right, because roughly 23 0761 users hungry for knowledge searched Wikipedia during the time it took to read to this point in the article.
How to get started
1. Create an account on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Main+Page
2. Join the DCO Wikipedia Dashboard (https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Deep_Carbon_Observatory/Deep_Carbon_Science_in_Wikipedia/articles/available). Use "wikidco" if you are prompted for a password.
3. Pick an article from the Dashboard list or select an article of your own choosing and improve science on Wikipedia one edit at a time.
Articles that need your help
On the DCO Wikipedia Dashboard you’ll see a list of articles related to deep carbon science that need help. Included in that list are things like:
- Carbonate
- Core-mantle boundary
- Fluid inclusion
- Geomicrobiology
- Ocean island basalt
- Petrology
- Ringwoodite
- Serpentinite
- Subduction
- Tectonics
Need some help?
If you’re feeling enthused but need some help, contact the DCO Engagement Team. Our resident Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, Andrew Newell, has years of experience as a Wikipedia editor and can guide you through any hurdles you face.
