Research:Access to non-public data
 | This page is kept for historical interest. Any policies mentioned may be obsolete. If you want to revive the topic, you can use the talk page or start a discussion on the community forum. |
The Wikimedia Foundation hosts and maintains the technical infrastructure that runs all Wikimedia projects. As such it holds in its database data that is not publicly available, such as:
- raw server access logs
- temporary logs holding the IP address of registered contributors
- archives of deleted articles and deleted article revisions
- data produced by internal research projects
In some exceptional circumstances, researchers can request access to these data, as long as they comply with the Foundation's privacy policy and access to nonpublic information policy and meet a number of requirements on the use of this data.
| WMF support code: |
Until an official policy is approved by the Wikimedia Research Committee regarding access to private data, individual requests can be submitted following these instructions.
How to request access to non-public data for research purposes
Requests to access non-public data for research purposes can be submitted by creating a project page on this wiki.
Please include the following information with your request:
- the specific data you would like to obtain
- the motivation for requesting access to this data
- a short description of your research project (including external links if applicable)
- the name, affiliation and contact details of the main applicant
- the expected duration of the project
Once the page is created, please send the link to Dario Taraborelli (dtaraborelli@wikimedia.org) so your request can be reviewed by the RCom. Requests submitted to the RCom usually take 1-2 weeks to be reviewed.
Requirements
Projects supported by the Wikimedia Foundation for access to non-public data are expected to meet the following requirements:
| OA (Gold) | OA (Green) | Open licensed output | Open licensed data | Open source code | Reuse rights | Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended | Required | Recommended | n/a | Recommended | Required | Required |