A Community-Curated DokuWiki Resource on Diagnostics, Diversity, Pathogenicity, and Genetic Control of Xanthomonads.

Xanthomonads, including Xanthomonas and Xylella species, constitute a large and significant group of economically and ecologically important plant pathogens. Up-to-date knowledge of these pathogens and their hosts is essential for the development of suitable control measures. Traditional review articles or book chapters have inherent limitations, including static content and rapid obsolescence. To address these challenges, we have developed a Web-based knowledge platform dedicated to xanthomonads, inspired by the concept of living systematic reviews. This platform offers a dynamic resource that encompasses bacterial virulence factors, plant resistance genes, and tools for diagnostics and genetic diversity studies. Our goal is to facilitate access for newcomers to the field, provide continuing education opportunities for students, assist plant protection services with diagnostics, provide valuable information to breeders on sources of resistance and breeding targets, and offer comprehensive expert knowledge to other stakeholders interested in plant-pathogenic xanthomonads. This resource is available for queries and updates at https://euroxanth.ipn.pt. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Citations in Wikipedia for understanding research reach.

Objective: Wikipedia is the most frequently accessed online health information resource and is well positioned as a valuable tool for public health communication and knowledge translation. The authors aimed to explore their institution's health and medical research reach by analyzing its presence in Wikipedia articles. Methods: In October 2022, a comprehensive database search was constructed in PubMed to retrieve clinical evidence syntheses published by at least one author affiliated with McMaster University from 2017 to 2022, inclusive. Altmetric Explorer was queried using PubMed Identifiers and article titles to access metadata and Wikipedia citation data. 3,582 health evidence syntheses from at least one McMaster University affiliated author were analyzed. Results: Six percent (n=219) of health evidence syntheses from the authors' institution were cited 568 times in 524 unique Wikipedia articles across 28 different language editions. 45% of citations appeared in English Wikipedia, suggesting a broad global reach for the institutions' research outputs. When adjusted for open access publications, 8% of McMaster University's health evidence syntheses appear in Wikipedia. Conclusion: Altmetric Explorer is a valuable tool for exploring the reach of an institution's research outputs. Isolating Altmetric data to focus on Wikipedia citations has value for any institution wishing to gain more insight into the global, community-level reach of its contributions to the latest health and medical evidence.

Making a greener planet: nature documentaries promote plant awareness.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Plants underpin life on Earth and are essential to human existence. Alarmingly, almost 40% of plant species are under threat of extinction, with plants that are not directly useful to humans being particularly vulnerable. Plant diversity and its untapped resources require urgent protection to safeguard our future, but conservation initiatives are biased towards mammals and birds. Plant awareness disparity, formerly known as plant blindness, describes our tendency to ignore plant life and has been suggested to play a crucial role in the bias against funding and support for plant conservation programmes. Previous studies indicate that nature documentaries can generate shifts in audience awareness of animal species by providing vicarious connections to nature. Here, we investigated whether the plant-focused popular BBC show Green Planet had a similar effect for plants and stimulated audience engagement for information after the broadcast. METHODS: Online searches for further information were considered a form of engagement for evaluation of the interest of the audience in plants portrayed in Green Planet episodes. The big data activities (Google search engine and Wikipedia pageviews trends) related to the plants mentioned in Green Planet episodes were examined over the period covering the broadcast of the show in UK. KEY RESULTS: Analyses indicate that Green Planet generated increased awareness and stimulated audience engagement for further information about plants featured in the show, with audience reaction driven by the screen time. CONCLUSIONS: Natural history films can promote plant awareness, and culturomic tools can be used to assess their impact on the general public, potentially also to inform plant conservation strategies. These are promising findings as we strive to increase public awareness of the value of plant life.

Achieving a real-time online monitoring system for conservation culturomics.

Environmental monitoring is increasingly shifting toward a set of systems that describe changes in real time. In ecology specifically, a series of challenges have prevented the rollout of real-time monitoring for features such as biodiversity change or ecosystem service provision. Conservation culturomics, a field concerned with interactions between people and nature, is well placed to demonstrate how monitoring might move toward a network of real-time platforms, given its existence exclusively in the digital realm. We examined a set of considerations associated with the development of real-time monitoring platforms for conservation culturomics and introduce a near real-time platform for the Species Awareness Index, a global index of changing biodiversity awareness derived from the rate of change in page views for species on Wikipedia. This platform will update automatically each month, operating in near real time (https://joemillard.shinyapps.io/Real_time_SAI/). There are plans to make the underlying data queryable via an application programing interface independent of the platform. The real-time Species Awareness Index will represent the first real-time and entirely automated conservation culturomic platform and one of the first real-time platforms in the discipline of ecology. Real-time monitoring for culturomics can provide insight into human-nature interactions as they play out in the physical realm and provide a framework for the development of real-time monitoring in ecology. Real-time monitoring metrics can be processed on private virtual machines and hosted on publicly available cloud services. Conservation now needs an online, real-time observatory that can evolve with the structure of the web.

Obtención de un sistema virtual de monitoreo en tiempo real para la culturomía de la conservación Resumen El monitoreo ambiental se enfoca cada vez más en un conjunto de sistemas que describen los cambios en tiempo real. En cuanto a la ecología, una serie de obstáculos ha impedido el despliegue del monitoreo en tiempo real para funciones como el cambio en la biodiversidad o el suministro de servicios ambientales. La culturomía de la conservación, un campo enfocado en las interacciones entre las personas y la naturaleza, es una buena opción para demostrar cómo el monitoreo podría transformarse en una red de plataformas en tiempo real, dado que sólo existe en el ámbito digital. Analizamos una serie de consideraciones asociadas con el desarrollo de plataformas de monitoreo en tiempo real para la culturomía de la conservación e introdujimos una plataforma casi en tiempo real para el Índice de Conciencia de Especies, un índice mundial del cambio en la conciencia sobre la biodiversidad derivado de la tasa de cambio en las visitas a las páginas de Wikipedia de diferentes especies. Esta plataforma se actualizará automáticamente cada mes, por lo que opera casi en tiempo real (https://joemillard.shinyapps.io/Real_time_SAI/). Existen planes para hacer que los datos subyacentes sean consultables por medio de una interfaz de programación de aplicaciones independiente de la plataforma. El Índice de Conciencia de Especies en tiempo real será la primera plataforma de culturomía de la conservación automatizada por completo y en tiempo real, así como una de las primeras plataformas de este tipo para la disciplina de la ecología. El monitoreo en tiempo real de la culturomía puede proporcionar información sobre las interacciones humano-naturaleza conforme se desarrollan en el ámbito físico y también un marco de trabajo para el desarrollo del monitoreo en tiempo real para la ecología. Las medidas del monitoreo en tiempo real pueden procesarse en máquinas virtuales privadas y albergarse en servicios públicos de nubes de almacenamiento. Hoy en día, la conservación necesita un observatorio en línea y en tiempo real que pueda evolucionar con la estructura de la web.

Crowdsourcing Knowledge Production of COVID-19 Information on Japanese Wikipedia in the Face of Uncertainty: Empirical Analysis.

BACKGROUND: A worldwide overabundance of information comprising misinformation, rumors, and propaganda concerning COVID-19 has been observed in addition to the pandemic. By addressing this data confusion, Wikipedia has become an important source of information. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate how the editors of Wikipedia have handled COVID-19-related information. Specifically, it focused on 2 questions: What were the knowledge preferences of the editors who participated in producing COVID-19-related information? and How did editors with different knowledge preferences collaborate? METHODS: This study used a large-scale data set, including >2 million edits in the histories of 1857 editors who edited 133 articles related to COVID-19 on Japanese Wikipedia. Machine learning methods, including graph neural network methods, Bayesian inference, and Granger causality analysis, were used to establish the editors' topic proclivity and collaboration patterns. RESULTS: Overall, 3 trends were observed. Two groups of editors were involved in the production of information on COVID-19. One group had a strong preference for sociopolitical topics (social-political group), and the other group strongly preferred scientific and medical topics (scientific-medical group). The social-political group played a central role (contributing 16,544,495/23,485,683, 70.04% of bits of content and 57,969/76,673, 75.61% of the references) in the information production part of the COVID-19 articles on Wikipedia, whereas the scientific-medical group played only a secondary role. The severity of the pandemic in Japan activated the editing behaviors of the social-political group, leading them to contribute more to COVID-19 information production on Wikipedia while simultaneously deactivating the editing behaviors of the scientific-medical group, resulting in their less contribution to COVID-19 information production on Wikipedia (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.231; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed that lay experts (ie, Wikipedia editors) in the fields of science and medicine tended to remain silent when facing high scientific uncertainty related to the pandemic. Considering the high quality of the COVID-19-related articles on Japanese Wikipedia, this research also suggested that the sidelining of the science and medicine editors in discussions is not necessarily a problem. Instead, the social and political context of the issues with high scientific uncertainty is more important than the scientific discussions that support accuracy.

A Study on User-Oriented Subjects of Child Abuse on Wikipedia: Temporal Analysis of Wikipedia History Versions and Traffic Data.

BACKGROUND: Many people turn to online open encyclopedias such as Wikipedia to seek knowledge about child abuse. However, the information available on this website is often disorganized and incomplete. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze Wikipedia's coverage of child abuse and provide a more accessible way for users to browse child abuse-related content. The study explored the main themes and subjects related to child abuse on Wikipedia and proposed a multilayer user-oriented subject schema from the general users' perspective. METHODS: The knowledge of child abuse on Wikipedia is presented in the child abuse-related articles on it. The study analyzed child abuse-related articles on Wikipedia, examining their history versions and yearly page views data to reveal the evolution of content and popularity. The themes and subjects were identified from the articles' text using the open coding, self-organizing map, and n-gram approaches. The subjects in different periods were compared to reveal changes in content. RESULTS: This study collected and investigated 241 associated Wikipedia articles and their history versions and traffic data. Four facets were identified: (1) maltreatment behavior (n=118, 48.9%); (2) people and environment (n=28, 11.6%); (3) problems and risks (n=33, 13.7%); and (4) protection and support (n=62, 25.7%). A total of 8 themes and 51 subjects were generated from the text, and a user-oriented subject schema linking the facets, themes, subjects, and articles was created. Maltreatment behavior (number of total views = 1.15 × 108) was the most popular facet viewed by users, while people and environment (number of total views = 2.42 × 107) was the least popular. The popularity of child abuse increased from 2010 to 2014 but decreased after that. CONCLUSIONS: The user-oriented subject schema provides an easier way for users to seek information and learn about child abuse. The knowledge of child abuse on Wikipedia covers the harms done to children, the problems caused by child abuse, the protection of children, and the people involved in child abuse. However, there was an inconsistency between the interests of general users and Wikipedia editors, and the child abuse knowledge on Wikipedia was found to be deficient, lacking content about typical child abuse types. To meet users' needs, health information creators need to generate more information to fill the knowledge gap.

Predicting Norovirus in England Using Existing and Emerging Syndromic Data: Infodemiology Study.

BACKGROUND: Norovirus is associated with approximately 18% of the global burden of gastroenteritis and affects all age groups. There is currently no licensed vaccine or available antiviral treatment. However, well-designed early warning systems and forecasting can guide nonpharmaceutical approaches to norovirus infection prevention and control. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the predictive power of existing syndromic surveillance data and emerging data sources, such as internet searches and Wikipedia page views, to predict norovirus activity across a range of age groups across England. METHODS: We used existing syndromic surveillance and emerging syndromic data to predict laboratory data indicating norovirus activity. Two methods are used to evaluate the predictive potential of syndromic variables. First, the Granger causality framework was used to assess whether individual variables precede changes in norovirus laboratory reports in a given region or an age group. Then, we used random forest modeling to estimate the importance of each variable in the context of others with two methods: (1) change in the mean square error and (2) node purity. Finally, these results were combined into a visualization indicating the most influential predictors for norovirus laboratory reports in a specific age group and region. RESULTS: Our results suggest that syndromic surveillance data include valuable predictors for norovirus laboratory reports in England. However, Wikipedia page views are less likely to provide prediction improvements on top of Google Trends and Existing Syndromic Data. Predictors displayed varying relevance across age groups and regions. For example, the random forest modeling based on selected existing and emerging syndromic variables explained 60% variance in the ≥65 years age group, 42% in the East of England, but only 13% in the South West region. Emerging data sets highlighted relative search volumes, including "flu symptoms," "norovirus in pregnancy," and norovirus activity in specific years, such as "norovirus 2016." Symptoms of vomiting and gastroenteritis in multiple age groups were identified as important predictors within existing data sources. CONCLUSIONS: Existing and emerging data sources can help predict norovirus activity in England in some age groups and geographic regions, particularly, predictors concerning vomiting, gastroenteritis, and norovirus in the vulnerable populations and historical terms such as stomach flu. However, syndromic predictors were less relevant in some age groups and regions likely due to contrasting public health practices between regions and health information-seeking behavior between age groups. Additionally, predictors relevant to one norovirus season may not contribute to other seasons. Data biases, such as low spatial granularity in Google Trends and especially in Wikipedia data, also play a role in the results. Moreover, internet searches can provide insight into mental models, that is, an individual's conceptual understanding of norovirus infection and transmission, which could be used in public health communication strategies.

Global utilization of online information for substance use disorder: An infodemiological study of Google and Wikipedia from 2004 to 2022.

INTRODUCTION: The increasing number of people who use drugs (PWUDs) can be attributed to the rising online sales of drugs and other related substances. Information on drugs and drug markets has also become easily accessible in web-search engines and social media. Aside from providing direct care, nurses have essential roles in preventing substance use disorder. These roles include health education, liaison, and researcher. Thus, nurses must examine and utilize the Internet, where information and transactions related to these substances are increasing. DESIGN/METHODS: This study utilized an infodemiological design in exploring the worldwide information utilization for substance use disorder. Data were gathered from Google Trends and Wikimedia Pageview. The data included relative search volumes (RSV), top and rising related queries and topics, and Wikipedia page views between 2004 and 2022. After describing the data, autoregressive integrated mean averaging (ARIMA) models were used to predict future utilization of online information from Google and Wikipedia. RESULTS: Google trends ranked 37 countries based on the search volumes for substance use disorder. Ethiopia, Finland, the United States, Kenya, and Canada have the highest RSVs, while the lowest-ranked country is Turkey, followed by Mexico, Spain, Japan, and Indonesia. Google searches for substance use disorder-related information increased by more than 900% between 2004 and 2022. In addition, Wikipedia page views for substance use disorder-related information increased by almost 200% between 2015 and 2022. Based on the ARIMA models, RSVs and page views are predicted to increase by about 150% and 120% by December 2025. Top and rising search-related topics and queries revealed that the public increasingly utilized online information to understand specific substances and the possible mental health comorbidities related to substance use disorders. Their recent concerns revolved around diagnostics, specific substances, and specific disorders. CONCLUSION: The Internet can be of paradoxical use in substance use disorder. It has been previously reported to be increasingly used in drug trades, contributing to the increasing prevalence of substance use disorder. Likewise, the present study's findings revealed that it is increasingly utilized for substance use disorder-related information. Thus, nurses and other healthcare professionals should ensure that online information regarding substance use disorders is accurate and up-to-date. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Nurse informaticists can form and lead Internet- and social-media-based health teams that perform national infodemiological investigations to assess online information. In doing so, they can inform, expand, and contextualize ehealth substance use education and strengthen the accessibility and delivery of substance use healthcare. In addition, public health nurses can collaborate to engage patients and communities in identifying harmful substance use disorder information online and creating culturally-appropriate messages that will correct misinformation and improve ehealth literacy, specifically in substance use disorder.

Can pharmacy students use Wikipedia as a learning resource? Critical assessment of articles on chemotherapeutic drugs.

Pharmacy students tend to use Wikipedia as a quick resource of knowledge. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of content and readability level of Wikipedia articles on chemotherapeutics, using quality and readability tools. Using the British National Formulary (BNF-2018) and ClinicalTrials.gov, we identified 188 chemotherapeutic drugs. We randomly selected 100 drugs with an Excel randomization program. The English Wikipedia was searched for the selected 100 drugs, and prints of the identified articles were obtained. Readability was calculated with an online instrument (http://www.readabilityformulas.com/). Articles were independently scored by two researchers using the modified DISCERN tool for content assessment. The modified DISCERN scores had a median value of 24 [interquartile range (IQR) = 7.5]. Two articles (2%) had good quality (DISCERN score 36-40), thirty-eight (38%) were moderate (DISCERN 26-35), and sixty (60%) were poor in score (DISCERN ≤25). The articles covered drug indications and most side effects. However, the majority lacked information on the routes of administration, contraindications, pharmacokinetics, and mechanisms of action. We found a correlation between DISCERN scores and number of edits (P value = 0.00033, R2 = 0.1238). The number of references varied from 2 to 150 (median= 17, IQR = 17). Several problems were identified in the lists of references and citations. Most articles lacked tables and figures. The readability of the articles was 14.35 ± 3.13, consistent with the readability level of university students. In conclusion, the Wikipedia articles on chemotherapeutic drugs were not written for professional pharmacy students. Although they matched the expected readability level of university students, most were incomplete and lacked essential information.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Pharmacy students use Wikipedia as a quick resource of knowledge. However, Wikipedia articles are not written for professional pharmacy students. The study shows that although Wikipedia articles on chemotherapeutic drugs matched the expected readability level of university students, most needed to be completed and lacked essential information.

Readability of English, German, and Russian Disease-Related Wikipedia Pages: Automated Computational Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Wikipedia is a popular encyclopedia for health- and disease-related information in which patients seek advice and guidance on the web. Yet, Wikipedia articles can be unsuitable as patient education materials, as investigated in previous studies that analyzed specific diseases or medical topics with a comparatively small sample size. Currently, no data are available on the average readability levels of all disease-related Wikipedia pages for the different localizations of this particular encyclopedia. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze disease-related Wikipedia pages written in English, German, and Russian using well-established readability metrics for each language. METHODS: Wikipedia database snapshots and Wikidata metadata were chosen as resources for data collection. Disease-related articles were retrieved separately for English, German, and Russian starting with the main concept of Human Diseases and Disorders (German: Krankheit; Russian: Заболевания человека). In the case of existence, the corresponding International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), codes were retrieved for each article. Next, the raw texts were extracted and readability metrics were computed. RESULTS: The number of articles included in this study for English, German, and Russian Wikipedia was n=6127, n=6024, and n=3314, respectively. Most disease-related articles had a Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score <50.00, signaling difficult or very difficult educational material (English: 5937/6125, 96.93%; German: 6004/6022, 99.7%; Russian: 2647/3313, 79.9%). In total, 70% (7/10) of the analyzed articles could be assigned an ICD-10 code with certainty (English: 4235/6127, 69.12%; German: 4625/6024, 76.78%; Russian: 2316/3314, 69.89%). For articles with ICD-10 codes, the mean FRE scores were 28.69 (SD 11.00), 20.33 (SD 9.98), and 38.54 (SD 13.51) for English, German, and Russian, respectively. A total of 9 English ICD-10 chapters (11 German and 10 Russian) showed significant differences: chapter F (FRE 23.88, SD 9.95; P<.001), chapter E (FRE 25.14, SD 9.88; P<.001), chapter H (FRE 30.04, SD 10.57; P=.049), chapter I (FRE 30.05, SD 9.07; P=.04), chapter M (FRE 31.17, 11.94; P<.001), chapter T (FRE 32.06, SD 10.51; P=.001), chapter A (FRE 32.63, SD 9.25; P<.001), chapter B (FRE 33.24, SD 9.07; P<.001), and chapter S (FRE 39.02, SD 8.22; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Disease-related English, German, and Russian Wikipedia articles cannot be recommended as patient education materials because a major fraction is difficult or very difficult to read. The authors of Wikipedia pages should carefully revise existing text materials for readers with a specific interest in a disease or its associated symptoms. Special attention should be given to articles on mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders (ICD-10 chapter F) because these articles were most difficult to read in comparison with other ICD-10 chapters. Wikipedia readers should be supported by editors providing a short and easy-to-read summary for each article.

Evaluation of Medical Information on Male Sexual Dysfunction on Baidu Encyclopedia and Wikipedia: Comparative Study.

BACKGROUND: Sexual dysfunction is a private set of disorders that may cause stigma for patients when discussing their private problems with doctors. They might also feel reluctant to initiate a face-to-face consultation. Internet searches are gradually becoming the first choice for people with sexual dysfunction to obtain health information. Globally, Wikipedia is the most popular and consulted validated encyclopedia website in the English-speaking world. Baidu Encyclopedia is becoming the dominant source in Chinese-speaking regions; however, the objectivity and readability of the content are yet to be evaluated. OBJECTIVE: Hence, we aimed to evaluate the reliability, readability, and objectivity of male sexual dysfunction content on Wikipedia and Baidu Encyclopedia. METHODS: The Chinese Baidu Encyclopedia and English Wikipedia were investigated. All possible synonymous and derivative keywords for the most common male sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, and their most common complication, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, were screened. Two doctors evaluated the articles on Chinese Baidu Encyclopedia and English Wikipedia. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) scoring system, DISCERN instrument, and Global Quality Score (GQS) were used to assess the quality of disease-related articles. RESULTS: The total DISCERN scores (P=.002) and JAMA scores (P=.001) for Wikipedia were significantly higher than those of Baidu Encyclopedia; there was no statistical difference between the GQS scores (P=.31) for these websites. Specifically, the DISCERN Section 1 score (P<.001) for Wikipedia was significantly higher than that of Baidu Encyclopedia, while the differences between the DISCERN Section 2 and 3 scores (P=.14 and P=.17, respectively) were minor. Furthermore, Wikipedia had a higher proportion of high total DISCERN scores (P<.001) and DISCERN Section 1 scores (P<.001) than Baidu Encyclopedia. Baidu Encyclopedia and Wikipedia both had low DISCERN Section 2 and 3 scores (P=.49 and P=.99, respectively), and most of these scores were low quality. CONCLUSIONS: Wikipedia provides more reliable, higher quality, and more objective information than Baidu Encyclopedia. Yet, there are opportunities for both platforms to vastly improve their content quality. Moreover, both sites had similar poor quality content on treatment options. Joint efforts of physicians, physician associations, medical institutions, and internet platforms are needed to provide reliable, readable, and objective knowledge about diseases.

Effectiveness of The Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools' Training Programme: a new Paradigm for Teaching and Learning of Evidence-Based Dentistry.

BACKGROUND: The Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools (WCODS) is a student-led initiative that aims to publish high quality scientific, evidence-based dental content on the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia by equipping its members to use research, critical appraisal and writing skills to create accurate content. In 2019, the Collaboration launched a standardised training programme developed by Wikimedia-trained committee members, academic dental school staff and the Cochrane Oral Health global community. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of this training programme in ensuring WCODS editors follow the processes underpinning Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD). METHOD: A cohort of dental students and staff (n=136) from six dental schools in the UK and Malaysia took part in a standardised and structured training programme at the annual WCODS training meeting. Participants' abilities and their perceived levels of confidence in carrying out critical analysis of the literature were measured using pre- and post-training surveys, and competency assessments. RESULTS: Participants' skills in conducting literature searches, critical appraisal of the findings and creating and editing a Wikipedia page improved after training. CONCLUSION: The training programme provided participants with the skill set and confidence to apply best practice to create and edit Wikipedia entries. This Collaboration intends to recruit more contributors to improve global oral health literacy using the free online Wikipedia encyclopaedia.

Library instruction and Wikipedia: investigating students' perceived information literacy, lifelong learning, and social responsibility through Wikipedia editing.

Objectives: This article presents a multiyear pilot study delineating practical challenges, solutions, and lessons learned from Wikipedia editing experiences with first-year medical students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. The purpose of our project was to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of Wikipedia editing to improve information literacy and lifelong learning skills and to investigate aspects of social responsibility in first-year medical students. Methods: Lessons were provided through a combination of in-person and online instruction via the WikiEdu learning management system (LMS). Students next selected a health-related Wikipedia article to edit. After the editing experience, structural completeness data were collected from the WikiEdu LMS. Feedback was collected via an anonymous retrospective pre-post survey to assess the students' attitudes toward their perceived information literacy skills and the social responsibility of improving Wikipedia articles. Nonparametric tests were conducted to compare pre versus post outcomes. Results: Fifty-seven (79%) participants in the 2018 cohort and forty-nine (64%) participants in the 2019 cohort completed the retrospective pre-post survey. In both cohorts, respondents showed statistically significant increases (p<.05) in self-rating of all ten domains of information literacy and social responsibility after completing the program. Conclusions: This study showed that medical students are competent editors of Wikipedia and that their contributions improve both the quality of the articles and their own perceived information literacy. Additionally, editing medicine-related articles provides an opportunity to build students' social responsibility by improving content on an open platform that reaches millions each day.

Digital indicators of interest in natural world heritage sites.

Due to their remoteness or boundless nature, activities at Natural Heritage Sites are difficult to monitor. In this study, two digital measures of the interest in Natural Word Heritage Sites are compared: one ex ante based on the number of Wikipedia page views of the site and another ex post derived from actual visitation as measured by the number of Instagram posts. The entire UNESCO database, which includes 248 Natural World Heritage Sites is linked to the 2.8 million Wikipedia page views, the 58 million Instagram posts and the Köppen extreme climate zone categories. Quantile regressions reveal that the main association in common for the two indicators is the risk of the site losing its inscription. Presence in the UNESCO Danger list is associated with reduced interest in a site, particularly in the number of Instagram posts and in the top quartile of Wikipedia views. Years since inscription is also an important explanatory variable, especially for the Instagram posts and the Wikipedia views in the top quartile. The UNESCO selection criterion of outstanding beauty only relates to the Instagram posts. Climate zone is mainly linked to the ex post variable and its upper quartile, where the sites with the most attention are found. Wikipedia views are also negatively associated with sites in Africa, the Arab countries and Latin America. Elevation, size of the area as well as kind of site are all variables not significant. There is a significant correlation between the two outcome variables with a coefficient of 0.5. While the Instagram posts relate clearly to actual visits, the Wikipedia page views is considered a possible leading indicator of future interest in a site.

[The lifespans of scholars referred to different disciplines according to data from diverse sources: Inferences and challenges.]

Human lifespan is known to correlate positively with education level. In the present paper, it is explored whether there are significant differences in lifespan among those whose education may be reasonably rated as the highest possible, i.e. among scholars referred to different scientific disciplines. The publications where the lifespans of scholars were estimated against the general population are reviewed, and the estimates are compared with those derived from the Database of Persons Included in Encyclopedias (DBPE), which has been being developed by the authors since 2008 based on Wikipedia records. With all caveats associated with the peculiarities of the procedures of including biographic data in Wikipedia, the estimates derived from the latest version of DBPE correspond to earlier estimates and confirm the conclusions based on other data sources: scholars' mean age at death (MAD) and life expectancy (LE) steadily increased since the Medieval period up to the modern time, were higher than those of the general population, and where the highest among the scientific elite. An unexpected finding was that MAD and LE of economists were usually the highest, whereas those of the mathematicians were lowest compared with specialists in other research fields. The difference between the two extreme cases ranges from ca. 3 to 5 years in different historical periods. Further examination of the difference between the extremes may reveal what factors behind it may be at work generally, even though they manifest themselves less overtly in other cases.

Writing for Wikipedia: An Exercise in Microbiology, Writing, Research, Communication, and Public Service.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on how postsecondary education was and is delivered. Educators were forced to rapidly move their instruction online and find new and innovative ways to convey content, stimulate student engagement, and satisfy curricular requirements. The purpose of this article is to describe the use of a Wikipedia writing assignment in Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology, a second-year course in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) curriculum at the University of Saskatchewan. Students had the opportunity to write and edit incomplete articles on topics related to course content. In addition to deep exploration of a topic, this fostered in students the development of research and communication skills, which have been articulated as core competencies in veterinary programs.

What's hot and what's not in lay psychology: Wikipedia's most-viewed articles.

We studied views of articles about psychology on 10 language editions of Wikipedia from July 1, 2015, to January 6, 2021. We were most interested in what psychology topics Wikipedia users wanted to read, and how the frequency of views changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Our results show that the topics of interest to people seeking psychological knowledge changed during the pandemic. In addition, the interests differ noticeably among the languages. We made two important observations. The first was that during the pandemic, people in most countries looked for new ways to manage their stress without resorting to external help. This is understandable, given the increased stress of lockdown and the limited amount of professional help available. We also found that academic topics, typically covered in university classes, experienced a substantial drop in traffic, which could be indicative of issues with remote teaching. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03826-0.

Using Wikipedia to measure public interest in biodiversity and conservation.

The recent growth of online big data offers opportunities for rapid and inexpensive measurement of public interest. Conservation culturomics is an emerging research area that uses online data to study human-nature relationships for conservation. Methods for conservation culturomics, though promising, are still being developed and refined. We considered the potential of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, as a resource for conservation culturomics and outlined methods for using Wikipedia data in conservation. Wikipedia's large size, widespread use, underlying data structure, and open access to both its content and usage analytics make it well suited to conservation culturomics research. Limitations of Wikipedia data include the lack of location information associated with some metadata and limited information on the motivations of many users. Seven methodological steps to consider when using Wikipedia data in conservation include metadata selection, temporality, taxonomy, language representation, Wikipedia geography, physical and biological geography, and comparative metrics. Each of these methodological decisions can affect measures of online interest. As a case study, we explored these themes by analyzing 757 million Wikipedia page views associated with the Wikipedia pages for 10,099 species of birds across 251 Wikipedia language editions. We found that Wikipedia data have the potential to generate insight for conservation and are particularly useful for quantifying patterns of public interest at large scales.

La Wikipedia como Instrumento de Medición del Interés Público por la Biodiversidad y la Conservación Resumen El crecimiento reciente de los datos masivos en línea ofrece oportunidades para la medición rápida y asequible del interés público. La culturomia de la conservación es un área emergente de investigación que utiliza la información en línea para estudiar las relaciones entre el humano y la naturaleza y usarlas para la conservación. Los métodos de conservación basados en culturomia, aunque prometedores, todavía están siendo desarrollados y refinados. Consideramos el potencial de Wikipedia, la enciclopedia en línea, como recurso para la culturomia de la conservación y los métodos para usar sus datos en la conservación. El gran tamaño de Wikipedia, su uso extenso, estructura subyacente de datos y acceso abierto tanto a su contenido como a sus análisis de uso hacen que sea muy adecuada para usarse en la investigación de culturomia de la conservación. Las limitantes de usar la información de Wikipedia incluyen la falta de ubicación de la información asociada con algunos metadatos y la información limitada sobre los motivos de muchos usuarios. Hay siete pasos metodológicos a considerar cuando se usa la información de Wikipedia para la conservación: la selección de metadatos, temporalidad, taxonomía, representación del idioma, geografía de la Wikipedia, geografía física y biológica y medidas comparativas. Cada una de estas decisiones metodológicas puede afectar a las medidas del interés en línea. Como estudio de caso, exploramos estos temas analizando 757 millones de vistas de páginas en Wikipedia para las páginas sobre 10, 099 especies de aves a través de 251 ediciones de Wikipedia en idiomas diferentes. Encontramos que la información de Wikipedia fue particularmente útil para cuantificar los patrones de interés público a grandes escalas y tiene el potencial para generar conocimiento para la conservación.

The species awareness index as a conservation culturomics metric for public biodiversity awareness.

Although threats to global biodiversity are well known, slowing current rates of biodiversity loss remains a challenge. The Aichi targets set out 20 goals on which the international community should act to alleviate biodiversity decline, 1 of which (Target 1) aims to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity. Although conventional indicators for Target 1 are of low spatial and temporal coverage, conservation culturomics metrics show how biodiversity awareness can be quantified at the global scale. Following methods used for the Living Planet Index, we devised a species awareness index (SAI) to measure change in species awareness based on Wikipedia views. We calculated this index at the page level for 41,197 species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) across 10 Wikipedia languages and >2 billion views from 1 July 2015 to 30 March 2020. Bootstrapped indices for the page-level SAI showed that overall awareness of biodiversity increased marginally over time, although there were differences among taxonomic classes and languages. Among taxonomic classes, overall awareness increased fastest for reptiles and slowest for amphibians. Among languages, overall species awareness increased fastest for Japanese and slowest for Chinese and German users. Although awareness of species as a whole increased and was significantly higher for traded species, from January 2016 through January 2020, change in awareness appeared not to be strongly related to whether the species is traded or is a pollinator. As a data source for public biodiversity awareness, the SAI could be integrated into the Conservation International Biodiversity Engagement Indicator.

El Índice de Sensibilización de Especie como Medida de Culturomia de la Conservación para la Sensibilización Pública por la Biodiversidad Resumen Aunque las amenazas a la biodiversidad mundial son bien conocidas, reducir las tasas actuales de pérdida de la biodiversidad todavía es un desafío. Los objetivos de Aichi establecieron 20 metas para las cuales debe actuar la comunidad internacional para aliviar la declinación de la biodiversidad. Una de estas metas (Objetivo 1) busca sensibilizar al público sobre la importancia de la biodiversidad. Aunque los indicadores convencionales del Objetivo 1 tienen una baja cobertura espacial y temporal, las medidas de culturomia para la conservación muestran cómo la sensibilización por la biodiversidad puede cuantificarse a escala global. Seguimos los métodos utilizados para el Índice del Planeta Viviente para diseñar un índice de sensibilización de especie (ISE) para medir el cambio en la sensibilización por una especie con base en las vistas en Wikipedia. Calculamos este índice a nivel de página para 41,197 especies incluidas en las listas de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN) en diez diferentes idiomas en Wikipedia y más de 2 mil millones de vistas entre el 1 de julio de 2015 y el 30 de marzo de 2020. Los índices de arranque para el ISE a nivel de página mostraron que la sensibilización general por la biodiversidad incrementó ligeramente con el tiempo, aunque hubo diferencia entre las clasificaciones taxonómicas y los idiomas. Entre las clasificaciones taxonómicas, la sensibilización general incrementó más rápido para los reptiles y más lento para los anfibios. Entre los idiomas, la sensibilización general por especie incrementó más rápido para los usuarios del japonés y más lento para los usuarios del chino y el alemán. Aunque la sensibilización por las especies en su totalidad incrementó y fue significativamente más alta para las especies comercializadas, entre enero de 2016 y enero de 2020 el cambio en la sensibilización pareció no estar relacionado fuertemente con si la especie es un polinizador o es comercializada. Como fuente de información para la sensibilización pública por la biodiversidad, el ISE podría ser integrado dentro del Indicador de Participación Internacional para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad.

Combining culturomic sources to uncover trends in popularity and seasonal interest in plants.

Culturomic tools enable the exploration of trends in human-nature interactions, although they entail inherent biases and necessitate careful validation. Furthermore, people may engage with nature across different culturomic data sets differently. We evaluated people's digital interest and engagement with plant species based on Wikipedia and Google data and explored the conservation implications of these temporal interest patterns. As a case study, we explored the digital footprints of the most popular plant species in Israel. We analyzed 4 years of daily page views from Hebrew Wikipedia and 10 years of daily Google search volume in Israel. We modeled popularity of plant species in these 2 data sets based on a suite of plant attributes. We further explored the seasonal trends of people's interest in each species. We found differences in how people interacted digitally with plants in Wikipedia and Google. Overall, in Google, searches for species that have utility to humans were more common, whereas in Wikipedia, plants that serve as cultural emblems received more attention. Furthermore, in Google, popular species attracted more attention over time, opposite to the trend in Wikipedia. In Google, interest in species with short bloom duration exhibited more pronounced seasonal patterns, whereas in Wikipedia, seasonality of interest increased as bloom duration increased. Together, our results suggest that people's digital interactions with nature may be inherently different depending on the sources explored, which may affect use of this information for conservation. Although culturomics holds much promise, better understanding of its underpinnings is important when translating insights into conservation actions.

Combinación de las Fuentes de Culturomia para Descubrir las Tendencias en la Popularidad y el Interés Estacional por las Plantas Resumen Las herramientas utilizadas por la culturomia permiten la exploración de las tendencias en las interacciones humano-naturaleza, aunque conllevan sesgos inherentes y necesitan de una verificación minuciosa. Además de lo anterior, las personas pueden vincularse de maneras diversas con la naturaleza a través de diferentes conjuntos de datos de culturomia. Evaluamos el interés y el vínculo digitales de las personas con algunas especies de plantas con base en información de Wikipedia y Google y exploramos las implicaciones para la conservación de estos patrones de interés temporal. Como estudio de caso, exploramos las huellas digitales de las especies de plantas más populares en Israel. Analizamos la información recolectada a lo largo de cuatro años sobre las vistas diarias por página en la Wikipedia Hebrea y la información de diez años del volumen de búsqueda en Google en Israel. Modelamos la popularidad de las especies de plantas en estos dos conjuntos de datos con base en una serie de atributos botánicos. Adicionado a esto, exploramos las tendencias estacionales del interés de las personas en cada especie. Encontramos diferencias en cómo las personas interactuaron digitalmente con las plantas en Wikipedia y en Google. En general, en las búsquedas de Google para especies que tienen utilidad para los humanos fueron más comunes, mientras que en Wikipedia las plantas que fungen como emblemas culturales recibieron más atención. Además, en Google, las especies populares atrajeron más atención conforme pasaba el tiempo, contrario a las tendencias en Wikipedia. En Google, las especies con una duración corta de florecimiento exhibieron patrones estacionales más pronunciados, mientras que en Wikipedia la estacionalidad del interés incrementó conforme incrementa la duración del florecimiento. En conjunto, nuestros resultados sugieren que las interacciones digitales de las personas con la naturaleza pueden ser inherentemente diferentes dependiendo de las fuentes que se exploren, lo cual puede afectar al uso de esta información para la conservación. Aunque la culturomia parece prometer mucho, un mejor entendimiento de sus sustentos es importante cuando se quieran transformar los conocimientos en acciones de conservación.