2019/Grants/Credibility of information regarding COVID-19 pandemic
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 know what information is relevant to be added on Wikipedia and what is not. Hundreds of non-peer reviewed, small studies related to COVID-19 are being published everyday, some of them giving conflicting findings. There are several news reports about COVID-19, some of them claiming the discovery of a vaccine or drug. It is difficult to determine where these new studies and news reports 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 "COVID-19 Watch" project 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 Watch" project to the relevant Wikipedia articles. In case of research studies, salient information regarding the study will also be presented in "COVID-19 Watch", by incorporating information from Wikidata.
Why is it important?
Articles related to COVID-19 are receiving millions of pageviews on Wikipedia (reference). 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 presented on Wikipedia is reliable. This project aims to create a repository of reliable sources ordered in terms of their reliability, 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. Here is the link to my contributions on English Wikipedia. I am a member of Wikiproject: COVID-19 and Wikiproject: Medicine.
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 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. The references captured by "COVID-19 Watch" can also be used in other language editions of Wikipedia.
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 thesis 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 Project 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 project 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. Continued work after 2 months will be done on a smaller scale in my capacity as a volunteer. I will start working on the project from June 2020.
Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?