A new service is now available to Wikipedia contributors: free access to the Swiss media database Swissdox, which is usually only available by subscription. Thanks to this new partnership with The Wikipedia Library, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, the global non-profit that hosts Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, Wikipedia editors who meet the criteria will be able to draw on a pool of more than 43 million items from the Swiss press, radio and television when working on Wikipedia articles.
Research beyond the paywall
Many of these media articles are hidden behind paywalls outside this media archive and are reserved for subscribers to the respective media outlets. Consequently, these articles have previously been more difficult for Wikipedia contributors to locate as sources and are cited less frequently in Wikipedia articles. Access to Swissdox provides access to articles in German, French, Italian, Romansh and English from regional, national and international daily, weekly and Sunday newspapers, specialist journals, magazines, news agencies, online sources, radio and TV programmes, as well as discontinued publications.
Wikipedia is one of the most widely used sources of information on the internet and has more than 65 million articles in over 300 languages and is viewed more than 15 billion times every month. The information on Wikipedia is curated by a global community of volunteer editors around the world. These editors compile and share information on notable subjects from reliable sources, such as newspaper articles and peer-reviewed journals, in accordance with the encyclopedia’s editorial policies and guidelines. “Wikipedia contributors now have easier access to a greater volume of professionally produced content. The quality of Wikipedia articles is improving,” emphasises Maurus Achermann, Head of the Community Programme at Wikimedia CH.
Improved content on Wikipedia
Readers of Wikipedia articles thus benefit from better content. Journalistic works gain greater visibility via Wikipedia through additional referencing. The idea for this collaboration came from the Wikipedia community itself. The Wikimedia CH support association took up the suggestion, contacted Swissdox and found them receptive. “At a time when fake news is flooding the internet, curated and reliable sources of information such as Wikipedia are invaluable. The content supplied by our partner publishers in Swissdox meets the same quality criteria, and we are delighted to be contributing to reliable, referenceable information together with our partner publishers,” says Roberto Nespeca, CEO of Swissdox.
Wikimedia CH coordinates Swissdox access
Initially, 20 access licences are available. These are allocated via the Wikipedia Library. It offers particularly active contributors to Wikimedia projects who meet the criteria free access to more than 100 of the world’s best subscription-based databases with content in 31 languages. To be eligible, applicants must have made at least 500 edits on Wikipedia, have been registered for at least six months, and have made at least 10 edits in the last 30 days. Furthermore, they must not be subject to any active blocks. Wikimedia CH coordinates the allocation of access. Anyone wishing to optimise the quality of their research in this way can apply for this new service via Wikipedia Library. Swissdox is a subsidiary of SMD Schweizer Mediendatenbank AG.
About The Wikipedia Library
The Wikipedia Library, a project of The Wikimedia Foundation, provides free access to research materials to improve editors’ ability to contribute content to Wikimedia projects. The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible.
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