Wikipedia:WikiProject Academics

This WikiProject is inspired by discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion of a minor academic, at which Robert Merkel pointed out the Wikipedia's pathetic coverage of Nobel Prize for Physics and Turing Award winners. If we are serious about matching and ultimately exceeding other encyclopedias, we should have articles for at least the winners of major global awards in their fields.

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Title

WikiProject Academics

Scope

This WikiProject aims primarily to define a standard format for biographical articles about academic scientists, engineers, doctors, perhaps extending to the social sciences to some extent. As stated, it was inspired by the idea of providing at least minimal coverage of major award winners, but is not restricted to that - the debate over inclusion criteria is a separate issue.

A secondary aim of this WikiProject is to attract academics to wikipedia. If wikipedia is to become a highly regarded resource, it is going to have to involve the participation of experts in every field. One way to attract experts is to create articles that will be useful to an expert. For example, an authoritative list of contemporary sociologists might be useful to sociology researchers, even if the articles in wikipedia on each sociologist lack substantial quality. (See List of philosophers for an actual example.)

Parentage

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography. We should use the conventions specified in it unless stated otherwise.

Descendant Wikiprojects

None yet... None yet, but we may want to define child WikiProjects for major award recipients - for instance the Nobel Prize winners, Fields Medal winners, Turing Awards, and suchlike.

Similar Wikiprojects

Similar WikiProjects are WikiProject Creative Artists, WikiProject Political Figures, WikiProject Historical Figures, and WikiProject Sports Figures, though standardisation there seems moribund...

Participants

• User:Robert Merkel
• Quinobi
• Martin Walker (I will help out from time to time with scientists)
• KSchutte (academics of philosophy)
• Bduke (I am working through the list of members in International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and writing bio pages. Is this project active. If so, please contact me.
• Lacatosias
• Huangdi (I will work on legal scholars, as well as others.)
• Tennessee Wood

Structure

Use the structure discussed in WikiProject Biography, where applicable. The following are additional guidelines:

Each major award should have a list of award winners linking to the individuals concerned, and each academic should be added to the [[list of <I>field</I>]] of the field (or fields) that they are prominent in.

If they have won a major award, the citation for that award should be included verbatim.

Biographical details should include the details of their education, particularly their PhD (if they have one). It may be noteworthy, for instance, who their supervisor was. A brief summary of their academic career, including their current posting if still active, should be included.

The article should ideally discuss their key publications and give an indication of their significance. A complete listing of their publications should not be included.

Other biographical details can and should be added as available - however, do not do your own original research to add such. Find material published elsewhere (and cite as appropriate).

If they have a home page, a link to that is appropriate.

Other discussions are at:

• Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people with the same name)
• Talk:John Brown
• Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style

Hierarchy Definition

No classification of Biographies has been defined. See this example on dividing a topic into a hierarchy.

Academia Template

An academia template has been created. An example (belonging to W. V. O. Quine) is here:

Deletion List

A deletion-sorted list that may be helpful to members of this project can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Academics and educators. By updating this list and keeping it on your watchlist, you can help fellow project members rescue useful articles that have been proposed for deletion.

See also (and merge with): Wikipedia:Auto-biography, Wikipedia:Criteria for Inclusion of Biographies, Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies)