The Wikipedia Library/Newsletter/May-June 2024

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes

Issue 63, May–June 2024

In this issue we highlight a new partnership, 1Lib1Ref, a spotlight on a new referencing project, and, as always, a roundup of news and community items related to libraries and digital knowledge.

Partner announcements

The Wikipedia Library is announcing free access to a new partner:

L'Informé: a French economic investigation website

See all available partners on your My Collections page.

1Lib1Ref

The May–June 1Lib1Ref campaign has concluded with many more citations being added across Wikimedia projects. Highlights from this campaign include the efforts of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria and Te Papa's "reference-o-rama". Check out the Outreach Dashboard for more details.

Spotlight: References check

This spotlight is excerpted from Diff.

The policy of verifiability prompts people to add new content to attribute that information to a published, reliable source. Despite the importance of this policy, many newcomers don't know it exists and as a result, they forget to cite their sources. The Edit check project presents Wikipedia's policies when people need them most: when they are editing an article. The project began with a simple and fundamental check: cite your sources. The goal was to increase the probability that people who are new would publish a new content edit that includes a reference and is not reverted within 48 hours.

When selected users attempt to publish an edit that includes a new paragraph without a source, the visual editor highlights the added paragraph and displays a message inviting people to add a citation. If someone selects "yes" to add a source, then the visual editor opens the reference insertion interface. If someone thinks the paragraph they are adding does not need a source and select "no", the interface asks them to indicate why they think a reference is not necessary. An A/B test was performed on 11 Wikipedias.

Overall, 19% of new content edits include a reference by people who added a reference spontaneously. When they are advised to add a reference, this number rises to 42.4% of new content edits with references added and are not reverted within 48 hours. The revert rate fell by 8.6% for people who saw Reference Check. Contributors from Sub-Saharan Africa are 53% less likely to be reverted when Reference Check is shown to eligible edits.

A few other effects were observed. Firstly, contributors that are shown Reference Check and successfully save a non-reverted edit are 16 percent more likely to return to make a non-reverted edit in their second month. Overall, there was a 10% decrease in edit completion rate for edits where Reference Check was shown.

References Check is planned to be rolled out to all Wikipedias. You can test it at your wiki right now.