Wikipedia:Health Article Review Project

Welcome to the Health Article Review Project Improve the quality of a health-related article on Wikipedia in 20 minutes!

Key resources Wikipedia:MEDICINE, for information about Wikipedia health articles WP:TEAHOUSE, a place for beginners to get fast answers to Wikipedia questions WP:HELP, for help using Wikipedia

This is a two-minute tutorial video which explains how Wikipedia newcomers can start participating in the project. If you watch this two-minute video, that and two minutes to setup means you get started in four minutes.

What is this?

If you have never edited Wikipedia, and you are an expert in a field of health, then in 20 minutes, this guide will help you post a proposal to add missing content to a Wikipedia article.

This is a guide to introduce people with health field expertise to the concept of Wikipedia in 20 minutes by assisting them as they make a contribution to an article. Using this guide you are reading right now, someone who has never before edited Wikipedia may use instructions on this page to assist them in adding a statement with a reference and any other suggestions for improvement to the talk page of a health article on Wikipedia.

Read this in 2 minutes, finish everything within 20!

1. Read through this list to understand what will happen.
2. Go down this page and follow the instructions in bold. If you have problems, read the text which is not in bold.
3. It would be fantastic if right now you had a good source of information from which to take a fact, cite a reference, then make a proposal to add it to the article. If you are in class then right now ask your instructor for a scholarly article; otherwise there are instructions below for finding one. Perhaps you have your own. Review articles and secondary sources are best!
4. Create a Wikipedia account and log in.
5. Return to this page.
6. While logged in, go to the participant list on this page and sign your Wikipedia name in the list of reviewers.
7. Copy the review template in the section below.
8. Choose any article you would like to review and go to it.
9. Click "talk" at the top menu of the article to be reviewed.
10. Click "edit" at the top menu of the talk page for the article to be reviewed.
11. Paste the review template at the bottom of the talk page text box.
12. Write a review within the template.
13. Click save at the bottom of the text box.
14. You made a useful contribution to Wikipedia which many people will read! Thank you!

Create an account and login, then return to this page

Open this link in a new tab to create a Wikipedia account or login here.

The purpose of asking you to create an account is so that other Wikipedians can find your contribution and suggestion and implement it into the article.

Put your name on the below list

Copy this
* {{user|bmchandy}}
then click "edit" to the immediate right and just above this line. Paste the template at the bottom of the list and type your username into it. Click save at the bottom of the text box and you will return here.

• Bluerasberry (talk · contribs)
• ChrisHendel (talk · contribs)
• DavidAnsley (talk · contribs)
• taramont (talk · contribs)
• i9is0 (talk · contribs)
• UseTheCommandLine (talk · contribs)
• juna.keehn (talk · contribs)
• Jkeehn (talk · contribs)
• bmchandy (talk · contribs)

Find a reference

This section helps you find a reference to cite as you propose to add a statement to an article. If you have a source to cite then go to the next section. If you do not have a source, techniques for finding sources follow.

Get a good source of information like a scholarly review article or a textbook, find a fact in that source that you want to share, then go to a Wikipedia article and make sure that the fact you like is present in the appropriate section.

Suggestions for finding sources in a hurry

1. Ask your instructor for a review article or secondary source which contains a fact worth sharing. Cite it using the DOI (digital object identifier) or list authors and titles. Someone will properly format the reference if you give enough information for them to find the source.
2. Use your textbook. Cite using the ISBN and someone will automatically generate a proper reference from that number.
3. Use PubMed to search for any keyword. After you do your search, look to the left menu under the "Articles" section and click "review" to narrow your search to review articles. Very often the result in the abstract is enough for citation.
4. Choose an article from below! Also, at another time feel free to add your own articles to this list!

Lists of health articles to cite

• lists of facts about health diagnostics, cited and prepared by medical societies

Copy this, then paste it on the bottom of an article's talk page

You will copy and paste this text to the talk page of the article you review. Copy this now, then go to the next section. The text inside parentheses is optional; remove the parentheses if you like the content or otherwise delete it.

==My review of this article==
I am a (health student/medical resident/health worker/physician) at (school or institution). 
I am reviewing this article according to the instructions at [[WP:HealthReview]].

I suggest changing the article in the following ways:

I think that this article could be improved by adding this statement:

This reference supports the above statement:

(A major textbook ISBN with page number or the PubMed ID number from a 
[[review article]] is sufficient. Note that using a URL from the inside 
net at your university is not viewable by others.)

Thank you for your attention. ~~~~

Go to an article to add your fact

Search for a Wikipedia article where you can add your fact. When you find it, at the top click talk, then click edit, then paste the template at the bottom of the text box. Complete the template and click save below the text box.

Search for an article where you can add your fact and reference

1. Since you are about to go to a Wikipedia article, open a copy of this page in a new window or tab with this link so that you do not lose your place in these instructions by leaving the page.
2. Use the search box to find an article you wish to review.
3. Review the article.
4. Click "talk" at the top of the article page to go to the talk page where editors discuss that article.
5. Click "edit" at the top of the article talk page.
6. You just copied a template from this page - now paste it at the bottom of the editable article talk page.
7. Write your review using the prompts.
8. Click save at the bottom when you are done .
9. You have just posted a suggestion for improving the article. This finishes the project. Thank you!

Support

Hopefully you found the instructions on this page sufficient for making your suggestion. If you want further support then here are some options.

1. Post a question or comment on this project's talk page. Do this by going to the top of this page, clicking "talk", then at the top of the talk page click "edit". Write something at the bottom of the talk page.
2. Go to the Wikipedia Teahouse. Friendly people are there to quickly answer beginners' questions about Wikipedia.
3. If you want to talk to other people who are interested in health related articles, go to WikiProject Medicine and its related talk page. Access the talk page at the top of the project page; edit the talk page by clicking edit at the top.
4. If you want to review Wikipedia's exhaustive help archives, go to WP:HELP

About

Health-related articles on Wikipedia need regular review, assessment, and suggestions for improvement. This is a monumental task for any small group of people because there are over 23,000 health articles on Wikipedia as of 2012. It is also of significant importance as Wikipedia's medical content get around 200 million page views a month, being used extensively by both professionals and the lay public alike. Wikipedia is the world's most requested, published, accessed, and consulted source of health information!

In an effort to get suggestions on how to improve articles, this project teaches health experts how to give feedback on a Wikipedia article and post it in a place where anyone can see it. The expectation is that many health experts may sometimes be able to offer suggestions or additions to improve articles.

Other volunteers who are interested in those articles but who perhaps are not experts can use the suggestions to help them understand what is missing from the health articles, and they may use that information either to guide their understanding of the content of the article or actually use the review to improve the article themselves.

Follow up

Want to learn more about Wikipedia? Individual editors can go to Wikipedia:Tutorial. If you are an instructor or health educator and would like assistance organizing a group Wikipedia editing event, contact Lane Rasberry at lrasberry@consumer.org.