Help:Paper

This is a help page.
However it may contain statements which the community may wish to discuss in order to achieve a higher level of consensus.

A paper is an academic article or academic paper (or draft thereof) which has been published or is being drafted on Wikiversity. A paper typically reflects the work and views of a single individual or of a closed group of authors. A paper may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. This help page explains how to add your paper to Wikiversity, as one of the many other resource types which may be added to Wikiversity. This help page also points you to further sources of information about research and publication.

"Papers" distinguished from related resource types

Papers should be distinguished from:

Articles: this term is used on Wikiversity in the sense of "encyclopedia article". By contrast, the "academic article" is known as a paper or academic paper. An article must adhere to the neutral point of view and is a collaborative effort which any editor may edit, just as with Wikipedia articles.

Essays: an essay, like a paper, reflects the work and views of a single individual or of a closed group of authors and may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. It may be one of the following:
- an opinion piece of writing which is not on a sufficiently "academic" topic to be considered an "academic paper", or where the degree of formality is lower than a paper, or where the author simply prefers the designation "essay";
- a piece of writing set as an assignment in a course.

Blogs: a blog, like a paper, reflects the work and views of a single individual and may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. However the blog is usually in the personal User namespace of a particular registered Wikiversity user and conforms to the style of a "blog" (e.g. shorter; lower level of formality; stronger opinions; somewhat journalistic).

Guidelines for the form of a paper

Writers of papers may well be graduates or researchers who are already familiar with the general expectations for the form and content of papers in their field of expertise. This section serves simply to clarify how the form transfers to the Wikiversity environment.

Title section

Academic papers often have extremely long titles, which do not fit with Wikimedia custom. It is recommended that authors try, wherever possible, to use a short title for the name of the page on Wikiversity, and then state the long title of the publication (e.g. as published or presented elsewhere) at the top of the page.

The author(s) should always be clearly identified and the work dated at the top.
It should be possible to contact the authors - e.g. Wikiversity username given.
The level, faculty and school to which the work is related.
Disclosures:
- Either: the resource should very clearly be of a type in which readers would expect to find views, opinions or research findings which have not achieved a wide consensus (e.g. in an academic field)
- Or: the resource should be clearly tagged at the top with a tag which warns readers that the resource may contain views, opinions or research findings which have not achieved a wide consensus.
If the resource contains multiple pages, the points above (1-3) should be repeated on every page of the resource.

Abstract

The abstract of around 250 words should state:

the matter to be investigated
the purpose of the work
the methods used
the main results
the interpretations and implications of the results

Introduction

The introduction should:

state the thesis
give the reader all the background information needed to understand the paper
explain key terms
give historical information on the problem studied
cite other studies that have produced relevant results

Main body

This section contains the core of the paper and should be broken down into further sections such as methodology, materials and results.

Discussion and conclusion

This section sums up the work and possibly reworks the thesis. It may restate the main points of the study in a different way then provides a conclusion based on the evidence. It can look to the future or state the next logical step or idea.

References

This section cites and acknowledges all the resources used for obtaining information using an appropriate citation template.

Peer review

A section for reviewers to add comments.

Wikiversity contributors not named as an author should, as a matter of civility, refrain from editing the resource itself. However, it should be possible for all Wikiversity contributors to comment and discuss the piece of writing on the page itself (rather than resorting to the talk page). A review section at the bottom of the page is recommended. This is effectively an exchange for other contributors refraining from editing the authored section of the resource. Comments and discussions should be signed and dated in the normal wiki manner.
As this is a peer review the papers should be written for and reviewed by an audience of peers who contribute to Wikiversity in a similar manner or level as the writer.

Examples

Two examples have been selected from existing papers, because they are exemplary. Some other papers on Wikiversity do not quite come up to these formal standards.

One Laptop Per Teacher
- Header: Has 3 authors, who state their names, qualifications and institutions at the top, together with the date and publication status (e.g. if published or presented anywhere else).
- Abstract/keywords
- Introduction
- Review of literature/related work
- Main body
- Conclusions/recommendations
- References and acknowledgements
- Note: this page did not have a section at the bottom for comment and discussion by other contributors.

Learning and learning about learning in Wikiversity
- Header: Has 1 author, who states his name and institution at the top, together with the date and publication status (e.g. if published or presented anywhere else).
- Abstract/keywords
- Introduction
- Context/related projects
- Main body
- Conclusion
- References
- Note: this page did not have a section at the bottom for comment and discussion by other contributors.

Relevant policies and proposed policies

Peer review and publication

There is currently no system of peer review or screening for publication on Wikiversity. However such things were discussed in the past, and might be introduced if Wikiversity becomes widely used for the publication of research papers. Discussion of peer review can be conducted on the talk page of this help page. Currently you just go ahead and place your paper on Wikiversity.

The following pages contain embryonic review and proofreading systems.