Wiki Research Ideas/Summary

This page aims to give a general account of the ongoing discussions linked with Wiki Research Ideas.

The Wiki Research Hub

The two journals and the laboratory are likely to become part of a unique structure, the Wiki Research Hub, hosted on a specific wiki. Such a structure requires the introduction of working and discussion tools that would allow fluid collaborations between researchers.

The Wiki Laboratory

This idea has been originally submitted by Ward Cunningham : "Wiki or wiki-like collaboration tools might be better applied to stimulating and conducting high-quality research that will then usefully feed existing publications.". This remark led to the formulation of a binary system : the laboratory would represent the experimental aspects of wiki research while the journals embody its social and theoretical aspects.

The Journal of Wiki Studies

This journal would include social science researches on wiki structure and activities. As most of these studies are published in the field of sociology and media studies, the journal could focus mainly on these two disciplines.

It may include the following features (see also Wiki Research Ideas, Wiki Research Ideas/Research Hub and Wiki Research Ideas/Submission rules)

• Two managing structures : the editorial committee, that takes in charge all the administrative sides of publishing (creating the interface, ensuring communication toward scholar communities and general public…) and the scientific comittee that guarantees peer-reviewing.
• Several partnerships with open knowledge and scholar institutions : Wikimedia Foundation, the Unesco, Universities…
• Double-Blind review. The authors published their submission through an anon identity (for instance User:AuthorA1 — A being the number of the journal issue, 1 the chronological number of the author). The name of the members of the scientific committee may be made public. Yet, their reviewing requires the use of anon identity (for instance User:ReviewerA1).
• The peer-reviewing debates and discussions are accessible. External persons can express their opinion and advice about it.
• Simple (or even simplistic) interface. Social scientists are not really looking for sophistication, but rather easy-to-handle systems.
• A few detailed articles in each number (about 5-7).
• The article fully uses Wiki-syntax (footnotes, infobox…) and Wiki-interaction (discussion and so-forth…).
• Some part of the final articles should be dedicated to a selection of backstage stuff : the drafts the author has issued, the specific remarks of the scientific comittee, the corrections and enhancements done by other editors and the like…

The Journal of WIki Techniques

This journal would include computer science researches on wiki-based systems.

• Single-Blind review
• An innovative interface, strongly linked with the wiki-laboratory, so that the reader can easily experiment new techniques and tools.
• Numerous short articles.