Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon Workshop: Overview

What Is Art+Feminism? And Why Edit Wikipedia Entries?

Art+Feminism is a global initiative addressing the gender gap on Wikipedia by improving content on cis and trans women, gender non-binary people, the arts, and feminism. Editing on Wikipedia is an opportunity to improve accessibility to and knowledge of underrepresented communities. Participants contribute to one of the largest canons of information on the internet.

Basic Guidelines

• Stay neutral. Any editing should be free from bias, and avoid stating opinion as fact.
• Maintain verifiability. Add citations to reliable, published sources.
• Don't be messy. Avoid any conflicts of interest when selecting what entries to work on.
• Work in good faith. Follow the community guidelines set by Wikipedia.

See the quick guide below for more detail on these expectations.

Finding Reliable Sources

Wikipedia suggests using academic and peer-reviewed publications, as well as books, newspapers and magazines, for citations. Many such resources can be found through SMU Libraries. The library search and databases linked to in this guide have access to a variety of such resources.

Information resources should reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility. When searching for information, you need to ask yourself why you should trust the author of this published information.

• What is the author's expertise in this field? Have they published a great deal on this topic? 
• Do others have conflicting opinions on this topic? What is their experience in this field?

Process

1. Look at resources on the research guide and Google doc.
2. Create account at Wikipedia.
3. Select entry to work on.
4. Look through resources on that particular person or group.
5. Open a new window with your Wikipedia Sandbox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox
6. Copy your entry to the Sandbox for editing.
7. Add information to Wikipedia entry. Cite resources if adding new information.
8. Share entry with peer reviewer or faculty/staff sponsor before copying edits back to live entry and publishing.

Sample Ways to Improve Entries

• Add links to other Wikipedia pages.
• Add links to pieces held by SMU in their digital collections.
• Add more background information, citing resources available in person and online.

Sample Edit to Existing Page

Original paragraph:

The group had up to 25 members over its lifetime, including Jerry Bywaters, Thomas M. Stell, Jr., Harry P. Carnohan, Otis M. Dozier, Alexandre Hogue, William Lester, Everett Spruce, John Douglass and Perry Nichols.^[1] The group's range of practices included painting, printmaking and sculpture.^[1] 

Paragraph with added information:

The group's core consisted of nine men who had applied to decorate the Hall of State in 1936: Jerry Bywaters, Thomas M. Stell, Jr., Harry P. Carnohan, Otis M. Dozier, Alexandre Hogue, William Lester, Everett Spruce, John Douglass and Perry Nichols.^[1] Other members in the 1930s and 1940s included Charles T. Bowling, Russell Vernon Hunter, Merritt T. Mauzey, Florence McClung, Don Brown, and Lloyd Goff. The group's range of practices included painting, printmaking and sculpture.^[1] Works by many of these artists are held at the Bywaters Special Collections at Southern Methodist University.^[4]

Note that in-text links are not the same as citations. In the last sentence, the links point to a webpage on the Bywaters Special Collections and the Wikipedia entry for Southern Methodist University. The citation points to a third page that documents the holdings at Bywaters for Texas artists: https://www.smu.edu/libraries/digitalcollections/tar.

Examples of Detailed Wikipedia Entries on Texas Artists