Help:Frequently Asked Questions
See also Help:Contents
How is this new version of Scholarpedia different from the original?
- Anyone can propose to write any article, however for an article to be published it needs to be reviewed and approved by two Curators.
- Reviews are by default no longer anonymous, however article rejection is anonymous. (However, previously anonymous reviews have remained anonymous.)
- Each article has only one Curator, who during authorship can be thought of as the article "P.I.", becoming the article's "senior author". So, e.g., when an article is first published, the most authoritative expert on the topic becomes the article Curator, irrespective of level of contribution to the original article.
- Any user who successfully contributes to an article automatically becomes an Contributor of the article.
- While each article's Curator has the ultimate say over its content, every Contributor Curator of an article can vote to approve or reject any newly submitted edit. As soon as an edit is "seconded" by another article contributor, it is slated to be made visible so long as no other contributor objects.
How can I make a new article?
In real life, articles begin with an idea, it gets written, peer-reviewed, and is then published. The new Scholarpedia process is only slightly different. Here, the approval process is distributed. An author needs to do the following:
- Propose the title of the article by pressing 'propose a new article'.
- (optional) find agreeable co-authors -- this may be necessary if the proposer is not yet the senior authority on the topic.
- Find a Sponsor (in future you will need to find TWO) from among the Scholarpedia base of Curators. This Sponsor agrees that the topic is scholarly and encyclopedic, the authorship credible, and the work is not a duplication of work already in Scholarpedia. Once your sponsor agrees, the article title is reserved for two months for you to finish it.
- When your article is ready for publication, your article's sponsor must review and approve it along with another Scholarpedia Curator whom you must find to do so. By approving an article, reviewers attest to the quality of its subject matter.
How is an article maintained?
Published articles can still be edited, much like Wikipedia articles, however these edits are only visible once they have been approved. All those who have successfully edited an article become Contributors of the article, and after publication, edits need a unanimous approval of at least two of the article contributors (implicit approval), or approved by the article's Curator (explicit approval). If a Curator rejects a revision, the revision remains hidden (until another revision is approved).
Wait, anyone can approve an edit to a Scholarpedia article?
Yes -- new Scholarpedia uses a "What Would Curator Do?" (WWCD) philosophy for each article. Anyone who successfully contributes to an article becomes a contributor and is able to approve or reject proposed article revisions. Contributors are ranked for correctly predicting whether a revision is eventually approved or rejected -- and the article Curator has the final say here. If a contributor's predictions of edit outcome are wrong more often than right, then the contributor loses the ability to approve or reject future revisions. Contributor status can be regained by submitting an edit to the article that ends up being approved.
How can I contribute to the source code?
Because this project is still very experimental, source code development (PHP, MySQL, MediaWiki) is proceeding privately, but we hope to open development to the public at some point in the future.
What is a Curator?
A Curator is the individual ultimately responsible for an article's accuracy. This person is a recognized authority on the topic, but need not necessarily have written the article himself/herself. During the article's preparation, article's sponsors and reviewers indicate who the "Senior Author" is. The senior author becomes the article's Curator upon its approval. This is the most senior authority among the article's authors (and presumably among all world experts). Only authors that become Curators gain the privilege of sponsorship of other articles in Scholarpedia.
What is an Author?
An Author is an individual who made a substantive contribution to the writing of the article -- all authors' names appear in the article's official citation and in the article's entry in the Scholarpedia Journal. The person who proposed the article and all the people who agreed to co-author the article are its authors.
What is an Article Contributor?
Any user who has contributed to article, either by writing, sponsoring, reviewing, or successfully editing it, immediately becomes an Article Contributor (or simply "contributor") if they are not already the article's Curator. As an article contributor, the user can vote on proposed revisions (including their own). Because of this, any edits to an article by one of its contributors requires only one additional approval in order for the edit to eventually become visible to the public.
What is a Sponsor?
Before an article is written, authors can request "Sponsorship" from the existing body of Curators in order to reserve the topic involved. By acting as an article Sponsor, the Curator vouches that (1) the article is within the Curator's area of expertise, (2) at least one of the authors is the top authority in the field, and (3) the topic is encyclopedic and not redundant with respect to other existing Scholarpedia articles.
Who decides which articles will be accepted?
Article acceptance is decided, essentially, by the existing base of Scholarpedia Curators. The article is accepted if two curators accept it (one of the curators must be the original sponsor) and no editors rejected it.
I understand that there are no longer categories. Is this true?
No, categories remain, and Editors remain responsible for them, however formal Editor privileges are no longer tied to a particular category. Rather than impose restrictions, we have decide to trust our Editors to respect each others' projects.
Won't public reviewers be biased in favor of article approval?
Article reviewers can invite any individual whom they trust to participate in the review process anonymously. While the approval of this person is not required, he or she can comment on and choose to reject this article. The rejection process in Scholarpedia is anonymous. The 'Recent changes' list will show that 'The article XXX was rejected by an authorized user'.
How do we prevent non-notable articles from being accepted?
The requirement of sponsorship and review helps assure article notability, which is strengthened by the possibility that an article may be rejected anonymously. Notability is further assured through accountability: article sponsors and authors are listed at the bottom of each article, so that their reputation validates the article.
What prevents Curators from colluding with each other and producing dozens of potentially bad articles?
In the short term, it will be the responsibility of Scholarpedia Editors to prevent this from occurring, and in the long-term, automated mechanisms will be instituted that prevent such behavior: The reviewers of an article must be independent; that is, they cannot both be co-authors, sponsors, or reviewers of another article accepted within last month.
I have been a Curator of a Scholarpedia article in the original Scholarpedia -- what is my role in the new Scholarpedia?
Your article will be transferred to the new Scholarpedia, and you will continue to be listed as author. If you are a single author, you immediately become a Curator of the new Scholarpedia article. If you are one of multiple co-authors, we ask that you decide among yourselves who is the most senior -- in a large, multi-author scientific paper, this is often the "last author" or Principal Investigator. This individual will become the article's Curator, and the other authors will remain forever listed as the article's original authors.
Why does my MathJax look bad/weird/italicized?
If you're using OS X and Lion, this is a known problem. The easiest way to fix it is to open Font Book in OS X, select all the STIX fonts, disable them, and then restart your browser. The equations will then look beautiful.
FAQ for Assistant Editors
Can I write a biography of any author?
You may only write biographies of authors who have published an article in Scholarpedia.
If I have a problem, doubt, or question, whom should I contact?
When you first receive email confirmation that you are officially an Assistant Editor, you should also have been told the name and email of your supervisor. This person will be able to advise you on any matter. If you have forgotten the name of your supervisor or do not know who to contact, you may send an email to support@scholarpedia.org.
How do I log in to my Scholarpedia email?
You can access your email account here: http://www.scholarpedia.org:2095/webmaillogout.cgi/ by using your Scholarpedia email as username.
