Experience Report: Inclusion of Researchers' Biographies on Wikipedia

  • Herlane de Souza dos Santos IFES
  • Anna Júlia Ferreira Tamanini IFES
  • Maria Eduarda Lira Moreira IFES
  • Karin Satie Komati IFES

Abstract


In 2022, Wikipedia emerged as the eighth most frequented website in Brazil, accumulating more than 184.9 million monthly visits. Its prominent position as the most consulted digital encyclopedia in the country places it as an influential knowledge platform, shaping public perception on a wide range of topics. A gender bias was identified on Wikipedia itself - a discrepancy recognized by the site’s own administration. In response to this, a project was created dedicated to creating biographical articles about women researchers in the areas of science and technology, with the aim of disseminating their research and contributions and thereby improving collective knowledge for a more equitable representation of genders. The project involved the active participation of high school students. The purpose of this article is to narrate the journey of these students, exploring the challenges and learnings faced during project activities and reflecting on the impact of these initiatives.

References

Casagrande, E. (2022). Top 100 sites mais acessados no brasil [edição 2022]. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

de Macedo, D. S., Bentes, K. M., Ferreira, M. d. F., and Mochetti, K. (2017). Uma análise sobre a falta de mulheres editando a Wikipédia. In Anais do 1st International Wikipedia Scientific Conference (IWSC 2017).

Ferran-Ferrer, N., Boté-Vericad, J.-J., and Minguillón, J. (2023). Wikipedia gender gap: a scoping review. Profesional de la información/Information Professional, 32(6).

Ferreira, F. E. (2023). Cientistas brasileiras têm maratona de edição de verbetes na wikipédia. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Folch, L. (2023). Os sites mais acessados de cada país (excluindo buscadores). [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Ford, H. and Wajcman, J. (2017). ‘Anyone can edit’, not everyone does: Wikipedia’s infrastructure and the gender gap. Social studies of science, 47(4):511–527.

Konieczny, P. and Klein, M. (2018). Gender gap through time and space: A journey through Wikipedia biographies via the Wikidata human gender indicator. New Media & Society, 20(12):4608–4633.

LLYC (2023). Mulheres sem nome: Avanços da presença das mulheres na mídia e o desafio que ainda subsiste. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Maher, K. (2018). Wikipedia is a mirror of the world’s gender biases. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Martini, F. (2023). Notable enough? the questioning of women’s biographies on wikipedia. Feminist Media Studies, pages 1–17.

Martín, B. (2018). A mulher que inclui uma cientista por dia na wikipédia. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Page, S. P. (2022). Física escreve 1.750 biografias na Wikipédia para mulheres cientistas não reconhecidas. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Salerno, J. M. and Peter-Hagene, L. C. (2015). One angry woman: Anger expression increases influence for men, but decreases influence for women, during group deliberation. Law and human behavior, 39(6):581.

Salles, I. A. and Pappa, G. L. (2021). Viés de gênero em biografias da Wikipédia em português. In Anais do X Brazilian Workshop on Social Network Analysis and Mining, pages 211–216. SBC.

Temple-Wood, E. (2017). The blogger and the trolls. Scientific American, 317(3):70–71. Wikipédia (2022). Wikipédia: Projeto mais teoria da história na wiki/ mais mulheres. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Wikipédia (2023a). [link] Política de eliminação. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Wikipédia (2023b). Viés de gênero na Wikipédia. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Wikipédia (2024a). Wikipédia. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Wikipédia (2024b). Wikipédia: Escrevendo sobre mulheres. [link]. Acesso em: 01 abr. 2024.

Wikipédia (2024c). Wikipédia:fontes confiáveis. [link]. Acesso em: 01 maio 2024.
Published
2024-07-21
SANTOS, Herlane de Souza dos; TAMANINI, Anna Júlia Ferreira; MOREIRA, Maria Eduarda Lira; KOMATI, Karin Satie. Experience Report: Inclusion of Researchers' Biographies on Wikipedia. In: WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (WIT), 18. , 2024, Brasília/DF. Anais [...]. Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação, 2024 . p. 149-159. ISSN 2763-8626. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/wit.2024.2573.