Wikimedians in residence training and federating French Higher Education and Research (ESR) stakeholders to use Wikipedia

Wikimedians in residence are experienced Wikipedia contributors who work in academic institutions to promote the use of and contributions to the collaborative encyclopaedia. They have a crucial role to play in reinforcing the links between Wikipedia and the higher education and research sphere. These ‘residencies’ are initiatives whose aim is to train doctoral students librarians and academics and thus help integrate Wikipedia into the academic environment. They also organise collaborative events like ‘edit-a-thons’. These efforts fit into the broader open science framework.

This objective is an integral part of France’s national open science policy and more specifically promotes French research to the general public via the global collaborative encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Since 2023, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and Wikimedia France have been collaborating through a partnership to encourage the scientific community to contribute to Wikipedia.

For find out more, here’s an article (in French) from ‘Campus Matin’ describing the daily lives of two Wikimedians in residence in France: https://www.campusmatin.com/vie-campus/relations-exterieures/wikimedien-en-residence-former-et-federer-les-acteurs-de-l-esr-autour-de-wikipedia.html