Our research on Wikipedia

Last changed: 22 February 2013

SLU encourages researchers to contribute to Wikipedia. There is much to gain by disseminating knowledge where everyone already looks for information. The research from SLU will be visible and Wikipedia will become an improved source of information. A clever strategy is to use press releases and fact sheets and give them a second life on Wikipedia.

Get started with Wikipedia

If you are a graduate student, a researcher, an analyst or perhaps an emeritus you can spread your knowledge and help others to learn something new and get deeper insights into a topic. It is not difficult!

The first thing you need to do is to create a user account. If you want to indicate that you are affiliated with SLU, there are templates created for this purpose. Using a template also makes the sender clear. Contact us if you want to know how to do this: wikipedia@slu.se.

Please note! You cannot change your username after creating an account. Your email address is only for password recovery.

Some tips to get you going

  • On Wikipedia, search for articles covering your area of expertise. There is often an article on Wikipedia that you can contribute to. You can also start a new article if needed.
  • Use the information from for example press releases or fact sheets where you already have written a clear and understandable text. Cut out a few sentences and refer to the source (not the press release, but to the scientific article or source that formed the basis for the press release). Remember to add the article´s DOI. 
  • PhD students have a golden opportunity to contribute with parts of their thesis when it has been finalized.

Wikipedia and press releases

There are several examples from SLU showing that the number of visits to a Wikipedia page increases dramatically when a press release has been sent out. Therefore it is a good idea to update Wikipedia with information from the press release as soon as it has been published.