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The Most Viewed Website on the Internet

If you’re reading this, you’ve most likely used Wikipedia to look up medical or dental information. As a matter of fact, Wikipedia is the most consulted website on the internet when it comes to health-related searches,1 making it a highly effective tool to spread information- or misinformation. Therefore, it is extremely important that the information on Wikipedia be as accurate and up-to date as possible.

The Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools (WCODS), a student-led initiative in collaboration with Cochrane, is continuously working to update articles on Wikipedia, ensuring they are accurate and reference the highest quality research publications. So far, WCODS has added thousands of citations on articles that have been viewed over 107 million times.2 Although Wikipedia is such a noteworthy source, accessed by dental healthcare professionals, students and patients alike,3 little research has been conducted on its use within the dental profession. Given this, WCODS is taking the first step to collect data through a short survey. This short survey (3-5 minutes) is open to all dental healthcare professionals (dentists, dental hygienists and assistants, dental nurses, dental therapists, dental researchers and also students in these areas) that have not previously edited Wikipedia. All survey responses will be anonymous. Participation in this survey is greatly appreciated and will help take us one step closer to improving access to accurate, evidence-based dental information for healthcare professionals and patients alike.

Survey Link: https://dundee.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/evidence-based-dentistry

Survey Closes: August 31, 2020

For further information on the initiative or the survey, please contact the UofT WCODS Committee at uoftwcods@gmail.com. You can also visit the Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools (WCODS) Facebook page or the WikiProjects Dentistry page on Wikipedia

References

  1. Smith, D.A., 2020. Situating Wikipedia as a health information resource in various contexts: A scoping review. PLoS ONE 15, e0228786. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228786 [Accessed 2 Aug. 2020].
  2. Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools Program. [online] Outreach Dashboard. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wikipedia_collaboration_of_dental_schools_/programs [Accessed 2 Aug. 2020].
  3. Laurent, M.R., Vickers, T.J., 2009. Seeking Health Information Online: Does Wikipedia Matter? Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 16, 471–479. https://doi.org/10.1197/jamia.m3059 [Accessed 2 Aug. 2020].