Wikidata:WikiProject Policy Reports

This page provides details of the project, The missing link: Incorporating policy reports into the free knowledge ecosystem being undertaken by the Analysis & Policy Observatory (APO).

Purpose

This project aims to improve the presence of valuable policy and research material, and coverage of important policy issues, in Wikimedia.

Methodology

This will be achieved by:

• using APO’s database to verify the most reputable and prolific publishing organisations as sources
• feeding APO metadata on the organisations and their reports into Wikidata
• conducting an edit-a-thon on an area of focus on First Peoples public policy and research.

Timeline

• Step A. Establishing the project: June – August 2022
• Step B. Verifying policy organisations: August 2022 – January 2023
• Step C. Feed APO metadata into Wikidata: January – April 2023
• Step D. Building awareness and use: March 2023 – June 2023

Step A: Establish the project

This will involve the following tasks.

• Establish a Volunteer Advisory Group to guide the project across all stages
• Development a project management plan in consultation with the Advisory Group
• Recruit a First Nations Lead to select a First Nations focus area for the edit-a-thon in Step D and to ensure Stages B and C will support this work. The focus area will be dedicated to First Nations content related to public policy (e.g. First Nations health or education, or First Nations public policy and research institutes). The First Nations Lead will be supported by Wikimedians in residence who will examine gaps in Wikipedia, and the quantity and quality of relevant resources on APO.
• APO Editors will commence training to become Wikimedians in Residence.

Step B: Verifying policy organisations as reliable sources

This will involve engaging Wikimedians via the Reliable Sources Noticeboard as well as lived experience and subject matter experts to develop a list of publishing organisations on APO that make substantial and reliable contributions to Australian and New Zealand public policy, and specifically to the focus area. Each organisation’s associated reports available on APO and considered reliable will also be identified through this process. This will include cross-checking to see what organisations and reports are already on Wikipedia. The results will be presented to Wikimedia communities such as The Wikipedia Library, The Signpost, and the Wikimania conference.

Stage C: Feeding APO metadata into Wikidata

APO has structured metadata based on internationally accepted vocabularies. Existing tools (e.g. Toolforge) will be used to clean and structure APO metadata of the organisations and reports identified in Stage B. The Advisory Group and Wikimedians will be consulted to determine the metadata to import into Wikidata.

Stage D: Building awareness and use of policy reports

APO will work with Wikimedia Australia to build awareness of the policy reports available for referencing in Wikidata and present the project at various forums such as WikiCite. An edit-a-thon on the focus area identified in Stage A will be held and aimed at Wikimedians and new participants from APO’s policy and research community. The hybrid event will enable participation across Australia.

Outcomes and reporting

This section will be updated as the project progresses.

The project will be presented at WOW2022.

Key links

Step B

Reliable sources queries

• RSN: Is The Australia Institute a reliable source?
• WikiProject Source MetaData - Can reports be considered generally reliable?
• Village Pump - Can reports be considered generally reliable?
• Tiers of reliability - Grey literature

Information about reliable sources

We found a variety of information about what constitutes a reliable source.

• Reliable Sources
• Reliable sources noticeboard - Perennial Sources
• No original research (Reliable sources
• Tiers of Reliability

Some of these information were contradictory, and we found that when discussing reliability of a source, it is important to distinguish whether the focus is:

• the author,
• the type of publication (i.e. book, journal article, report),
• the work itself, or
• the publisher: which can fall into two categories of commercial publisher or non-commercial publisher which is often the organisation.

Reliability scales

We uncovered two reliability scales.

1. Reliable Sources Noticeboard - this scale is focussed on the publisher.

• Generally reliable (WP:GREL)
• No consensus (WP:MREL)
• Generally unreliable (WP:GUNREL)
• Deprecated (WP:DEPREC)
• Blacklisted

2. Tiers of Reliability

• Tier 1: Most reliable
• Tier 2: More reliable
• Tier 3: Reliable
• Tier 4: limited use

Other properties

• ...

Step D

Communications and outputs

• The missing link in the free knowledge ecosystem - this blog explains the project to APO's audience.
• Join us in the free knowledge ecosystem - this blog invites APO audience to get involved in the project.
• The Missing Link Repository - a collection on APO containing all the reports that have been uploaded into Wikidata.

Participants

[create] Create the participants list page and add yourself

Wikimedia Facilitator

The Wikimedia Facilitator will be the ‘go-to’ for the The missing link project team at APO and will facilitate the interactions with the various Wikimedia forums and volunteers. It is not expected that the Wikimedia Facilitator will know all the answers, but it is expected that they will know how to find them.

Specifically, the Wikimedia Facilitator will be responsible for:

• leading and facilitating the input of the Volunteer Advisory Group
• assisting with the recruitment of a First Nations Lead
• leading engagement with the Reliable Sources Noticeboard to ensure all identified publishing organisations have been assessed by the Wikimedia community
• Leading engagement with the Wikidata community and advise on tools to enable the importing of APO metadata into Wikidata
• leading the preparation for and co-facilitating an edit-a-thon in collaboration with the First Nations Lead
• identifying and engaging with all relevant Wikimedia forums at which the project can be presented such as The Wikipedia Library, The Signpost, and WikiCite.
• working with the Project Lead to ensure that the project is meeting its objectives and timeline.

First Nations Lead

It is critical that the focus area of this project is led by a First Nations person. The First Nations lead will be responsible for:

• selecting an area of focus for the creation and update of Wikipedia pages, to be completed in the edit-a-thon
• directing and advising on the selection of First Nations publishing organisations on APO to be included in the project
• assist and advise on the recruitment of volunteers to participate in the edit-a-thon
• co-facilitating the edit-a-thon with the Wikimedia Facilitator.