As of the end of 2013, Wikipedia's health content was assessed at more than 155,000 articles, which had been viewed more than 4.88 billion times. Wikipedia therefore provides a major source of health information for people across the world.

The Cochrane-Wikipedia partnership, formalized in 2014, supports the inclusion of relevant evidence within all Wikipedia articles on health, as well as processes to help ensure that health information included in Wikipedia is of the highest quality and accuracy. For more information on the Cochrane-Wikipedia partnership, please click here.

We are now pleased to announce a pilot programme through which Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) can benefit from having a volunteer work with them in improving the medical and health content of Wikipedia that is of relevance to their Group.

In 2016, we will recruit three volunteers that will work with three CRGs for a period of three months. At the end of the year we will evaluate this pilot phase and consider improvements that can be made, before deciding whether to continue the programme in 2017. Volunteers will receive a small honorarium for their efforts.

What we expect from CRGs:

• One to two hours per week of a named contact person’s time to work with the volunteer and provide:
  • editorial oversight of the edits and writing conducted by the volunteer;
  • guidance on priority topics and articles.
• Feedback on this pilot.

What we expect from the volunteer:

• Interest in communicating about evidence informed health care.
• Willing and able to write and edit Wikipedia articles and understand systematic reviews.
• Availability during a 3-month period (October–December 2016) for 8 hours per week.

What you can expect from the Communications and External Affairs Team at Cochrane:

• Guidance on Wikipedia editing, including providing training resources and facilitating connections to Wikipedians where needed.
• Overall project management: this will include a virtual kick-off meeting with the volunteers to provide training, as well as monthly meetings with CRGs and volunteers to monitor progress, facilitate work where needed, and share best practice between CRGs.

If your CRG is interested in supporting a volunteer in conducting this work, please send an email by 20 August to Sylvia de Haan, Partnerships Coordinator at Cochrane, explaining your interest and indicating who will be the main contact person for the pilot project. If we receive more than three expressions of interest, we will make a selection based on CRGs’ motivation to join this pilot project and the thematic areas most in need of updating within Wikipedia. If we receive more than three expressions of interest, and all are of the same quality and urgency, we may decide to keep some of the expressions of interest for 2017 when considering the next phase of this project.