Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives/2015-03-25

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News and notes
Wikimedia Foundation adopts open-access research policy
Last week the WMF announced the release of its long-awaited open-access policy.
Op-ed
How my father's railroad image collection now benefits the world: the value of digitization
Once when I was young, growing up in the 1990s, my father pulled his collection of railroad slides out from the basement, set up his projector, and shared a glimpse into American railway history with our family.
Featured content
A carnival of animals, a river of dung, a wasteland of uncles, and some people with attitude
Four featured articles, three featured lists, and twenty-two featured pictures were promoted this week.
Special report
Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2014
The Wikipedia Commons annual Picture of the Year contest has concluded, with 6,698 people voting, its largest participation yet.
Traffic report
Oddly familiar
This week's list is reminiscent of lists from the early days of this project: a preponderance of famous faces, Reddit threads, and Google Doodles.
Recent research
Most important people; respiratory reliability; academic attitudes
The authors attempt to answer the question "Who are the most important people of all times?" Their findings clearly show that different Wikipedias give different prominence to different individuals.
Blog
The Wikipedia Library Team reflects on its new Visiting Scholars program
A university gives a top Wikipedia editor free and full access to the university library's entire online content—and the Wikipedia editor, who is unpaid and not on campus, then creates and improves Wikipedia articles in a subject area of interest to the institution.