Abstract:

Wikipedia is a helpful tool for students all over the world. However, the educative community considers Wikipedia a non-trustworthy source because anyone can edit articles. Publishing and improving articles by scientific experts may inspire more confidence in Wikipedia users as a tool of science diffusion to society. In this context, Veterinary Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) has participated together with other Universities of Madrid in the project “Wikipedia Madrid+d. Creation and improvement of Spanish scientific articles”. This project has been developed by “Madrid+d Foundation for Knowledge” in collaboration with “Wikimedia Spain” and the Scientific Culture Unit (UCC+i) of the UCM. The goal of the first edition of this project was to bring to the fore Spanish Science and improve Wikipedia's quality in Spanish. We worked on several scientific articles related to veterinary and food science that were not described in Spanish in Wikipedia or on underdeveloped articles that require improvement.

Initially, our teacher's team was trained by Wikimedia Spain experts as Wikitutors. Afterwards, as Wikitutors they were in charge of teaching a group of faculty undergraduate and postgraduate students. The students worked on the suggested scientific articles guided and supported by the Wikitutors in an autonomous way. Five articles were finally assessed by area experts and published in Wikipedia.

The average number of visits in less than six months is more than 4000, with a monthly average of 872 visits. The work carried out by the team has contributed to achieving the objectives pursued and contributed to the dissemination of science in Spanish, remarking the fields of veterinary and food science, which are of great scientific and social importance. Besides, students expressed that this experience of transferring scientific knowledge was very motivating and constructive.

Keywords:

Wikipedia, Veterinary and food science, knowledge dissemination.