Difference between revisions of "2019/Grants/Credibility of information regarding COVID-19 pandemic"
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Revision as of 10:19, 22 March 2020
Title:
Credibility of information regarding COVID-19 pandemic
Name:
Netha Hussain
Wikimedia username:
Netha Hussain
E-mail address:
nethahussain
gmail.com
Resume:
Geographical impact:
Global
Type of project:
Research + Output
What is your idea?
COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world, and so is misinformation related to the disease. As there is a flood of information related to COVID-19, it is often difficult to differentiate credible sources from trusted sources. Hundreds of non-peer reviewed, small studies related to COVID-19 are being published everyday, some of them giving conflicting findings. It is difficult to determine where these new studies stand in terms of hierarchy of evidence, and if they have sufficiently strong evidence to be added as a reference on Wikipedia.
My solution is to create a "COVID-19 Watch" newsroom which collects WHO reports, researches, systematic reviews and news articles related to COVID-19, ordered on the basis of their reliability. This will help the editors to make informed decisions on which references are more reliable than others. 50% of the funding will be devoted to adding information from the most reliable sources from the "COVID-19 Newsroom" to relevant Wikipedia articles.
Why is it important?
Articles related to COVID-19 are receiving millions of pageviews on Wikipedia.Link Wikipedia has turned out to be the hub of trusted and updated information related to COVID-19 for millions of people around the globe. In this context, it is important to ensure that the information present on Wikipedia is reliable.
This project aims to create a repository of reliable sources hierarchically ordered in terms of their credibility, and incorporate them to relevant Wikipedia articles.
Is your project already in progress?
Yes, I have been creating and expanding articles related to COVID-19 in my capacity as a volunteer. Link
How is it relevant to credibility and Wikipedia? (max 500 words)
This project aims at increasing credibility of articles related to COVID-19 on Wikipedia.
What is the ultimate impact of this project?
The ultimate impact of this project is to increase the credibility of Wikipedia as a source of updated information related to COVID-19 pandemic.
Could it scale?
Yes, similar projects can be started for other topics, not limited to healthcare. The template used to create the hierarchy of evidence for COVID-19 can be reused for other subject areas as well.
Why are you the people to do it?
I am a medical doctor and a PhD student. I shall defend my PhD in May 2020. I have good understanding about evidence-based medicine and infectious diseases such as COVID-19. I have been an editor on Wikipedia for the last 10 years, and I have contributed to numerous articles related to medicine and healthcare on English and Malayalam language Wikipedia. Presently, I am volunteering to write articles related to COVID-19 on English Wikipedia. I would like to spend 1-2 months after my defense in researching and writing about COVID-19 on Wikipedia.
What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
The COVID-19 Newsroom will deal with credible sources from all over the world, not only from the Western World. Some of the references will also be incorporated into Malayalam and Swedish language Wikipedia, increasing the diversity of content there.
What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
As I am a medical doctor, I might be called in for emergency medical service in case the COVID-19 outbreak could not be handled by the existing workforce. This means that I will not be able to execute the project in the time frame I anticipate to work in. Should that be the case, I shall promptly inform WCNA about this.
How much money are you requesting?
3000 USD
How will you spend the money?
The fund will be used for compensating my time in working on the COVID-19 newsroom and adding reliable citations on Wikipedia articles.
How long will your project take?
The project is likely to require 1-2 months of full-time work. I will start working on the project from June 2020.
Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
No.