One of our long-standing partners in Scotland is the IDEA Network at the the University of St Andrews. Based at the School of Computer Science, the Network looks broadly to make knowledge production inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible. Part of their work has been the development of a range of Wiki-activities in and out of the classroom, including Summer programmes, undergraduate and postgraduate work, as well as outreach events with community partners. At the time of writing, on-wiki material which has been worked on as part of the Network’s activity has gained 3.38 million article views.
I invited Dr Ross (who, along with Dr Ardati, also of the IDEA network, and Dr Bhatti, a co-author of the below blog, have all attended Wikimedia UK Train the Trainer courses) to tell us more about one of this year’s Summer programmes.
/ (Dr Sara Thomas, Programme Manager, Wikimedia UK)
Authors: Kirsty Ross (School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews), Saeeda Bhatti (Medical School, University of Glasgow), Pauline Souleau (School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews)
Corresponding author: ksrh1@st-andrews.ac.uk
During COVID there was a lack of summer internship opportunities for undergraduates due to pandemic lockdowns and restrictions on travel. The Summer Team Enterprise Programme (STEP) at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, was designed to fill this gap and has run every summer since 2020. STEP is an opportunity for undergraduate students to invest 6 weeks in participating in a fully-online skills development programme, where they work on a real-life project designed and supported by University staff, gain virtual team-work experience in a group of diverse students, contribute to the University’s learning and teaching through working on impactful outputs, and get this experience listed on their academic transcript.
My name is Dr Kirsty Ross and I’ve been involved in STEP since its inception. As a project sponsor, my role is to propose a suitable project and provide direction to the student teams. I’m also the co-founder of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in Open Knowledge Network (IDEA Network for short) at the University of St Andrews which aims to address knowledge gaps in the Wiki projects by training others and building capacity. STEP has been a fantastic mechanism for introducing undergraduates to the wonders of Wiki and providing evidence of real-world impact, even resulting in a peer reviewed public engagement paper!1
Research has shown that Wikipedia is the most common source for obtaining medical information online. Amongst medical professionals, more than 90% of medical students and 50% of doctors have turned to Wikipedia at some point2. However, there is substantial variation in the length and quality of medical content in different languages. For example, pneumonia is a topic that is currently available in 134 language versions. However, the English Wikipedia article for pneumonia contains approximately 7,600 words and has 172 references, whereas the equivalent article in Urdu is just 125 words long with 1 reference. We drew inspiration from the excellent work of WikiProjectMed, which inspired the name of the project!
Over WhatsApp, Dr Saeeda Bhatti (Medical School, University of Glasgow) and I discussed how we might plug some of these medical knowledge gaps. Dr Bhatti’s background is in medical education and genetics, so we discussed targeting articles about rare genetic diseases. Using the Medics 4 Rare Diseases website, we narrowed down over 7000 rare diseases to a shortlist of 12 conditions. This shortlist formed the basis for the Healthcare Translation Task Force STEP project.
As part of the STEP application process, students choose which projects they would like to take part in over the summer. We ended up with two teams and 11 students in total. These students could speak, read, and write in 15 languages! We then explored Wikidata to find out whether or not those languages had articles about the chosen rare genetic diseases. Some languages (Arabic, French, German, Spanish) had almost complete article coverage (92-100%). Others (Simple English, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian) had approximately 50% article coverage. Cantonese, Croatian, Kiswahili, Kurdish, Serbian, and Somali had either no articles or just one or two (8-12%)! As the project was just 6 weeks in duration and was often balanced alongside paid work or internships, we weren’t going to be able to plug every single gap, so it was over to the students to decide how to proceed.
Dr Pauline Souleau (School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews) also provided training on how to adapt their translations to suit the cultural context; we wanted to avoid overly relying on the existing versions in English. When asked to reflect upon her experience of STEP, she said:
“The cross-disciplinarity of the STEP programme means that participating students are not necessarily trained linguists. Part of the Healthcare Translation Task Force STEP training was therefore to introduce students to the importance of localisation and cultural awareness when translating a wiki article.”
“When an article did exist in English, the aim was never to translate it word for word but to a) make it clear in the target language and b) adapt it to the target culture if needed. During the training session, we therefore discussed questions of language variants, as well as specialised terms, article titles, and disease names. Students took it on board and showed nuanced translation skills throughout the project.“
The students worked together to describe and name the conditions in their languages in Wikidata. They then picked a couple of articles to research, draft, and upload. Many roped in friends, family, and medical professionals to provide feedback on their drafts. The students also hunted down references in their own languages. Wikipedia depends on reliable, secondary sources3, and readers of a specific language should be able to verify the statements in the article4, without having to know English as well.
The students’ enthusiasm and commitment exceeded our expectations! 11 students, speaking 15 different languages, spent the summer creating 12 brand new articles, editing an additional 38 articles, adding 61,000 words and 555 references. Table 1 links to the articles in various languages; we’d love to see the wider Wiki community get stuck in and expand them even further!
As of mid-August 2025, the newly created and edited articles have been viewed nearly 58,000 times (see Figure 1 below), a testament to the real-world impact of student contributions. We hope this project inspires further translation efforts and continues to grow through community contributions.
None of the above would have been possible without the dedication of the students and their PGR coaches. They were: Dasha Andreeva, Alistair Grant, Lila Darmon, Mingxiao Yang, Lucie Siu, Aro Aziz, Summer Kwon, Jacqueline Park, Anne Foote, Anna Mokhovik, Aleksandra Lucic, Zamzam Issack, Axel Van Den Ancker, Lareina Yang (STEP students) and Ziying Ye and Maya Fenyk (STEP PGR coaches).
References
1. Cornwell RM, Ross K, Gibeily C, et al. Unearthing new learning opportunities: adapting and innovating through the ‘Antibiotics under our feet’ citizen science project in Scotland during COVID-19. Access Microbiol. 2024;6(6). doi:10.1099/acmi.0.000710.v3
2. Heilman JM, West AG. Wikipedia and Medicine: Quantifying Readership, Editors, and the Significance of Natural Language. J Med Internet Res. 2015;17(3):e62. doi:10.2196/jmir.4069
3. Wikipedia:Reliable sources. In: Wikipedia. ; 2025. Accessed August 18, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reliable_sources&oldid=1305930263
4. Wikipedia:Verifiability. In: Wikipedia. ; 2025. Accessed August 18, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Verifiability&oldid=1305104342