Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011;5(4):e201-8.
Epub 2011 Dec 20.

Collaborative authoring: a case study of the use of a wiki as a tool to keep systematic reviews up to date

Jacqueline L Bender  1 , Laura A O'Grady, Amol Deshpande, Andrea A Cortinois, Luis Saffie, Don Husereau, Alejandro R Jadad
Affiliations

Collaborative authoring: a case study of the use of a wiki as a tool to keep systematic reviews up to date

Jacqueline L Bender et al. Open Med. 2011.

Abstract

Background: Systematic reviews are recognized as the most effective means of summarizing research evidence. However, they are limited by the time and effort required to keep them up to date. Wikis present a unique opportunity to facilitate collaboration among many authors. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a wiki as an online collaborative tool for the updating of a type of systematic review known as a scoping review.

Methods: An existing peer-reviewed scoping review on asynchronous telehealth was previously published on an open, publicly available wiki. Log file analysis, user questionnaires and content analysis were used to collect descriptive and evaluative data on the use of the site from 9 June 2009 to 10 April 2010. Blog postings from referring sites were also analyzed.

Results: During the 10-month study period, there were a total of 1222 visits to the site, 3996 page views and 875 unique visitors from around the globe. Five unique visitors (0.6% of the total number of visitors) submitted a total of 6 contributions to the site: 3 contributions were made to the article itself, and 3 to the discussion pages. None of the contributions enhanced the evidence base of the scoping review. The commentary about the project in the blogosphere was positive, tempered with some skepticism.

Interpretations: Despite the fact that wikis provide an easy-to-use, free and powerful means to edit information, fewer than 1% of visitors contributed content to the wiki. These results may be a function of limited interest in the topic area, the review methodology itself, lack of familiarity with the wiki, and the incentive structure of academic publishing. Controversial and timely topics in addition to incentives and organizational support for Web 2.0 impact metrics might motivate greater participation in online collaborative efforts to keep scientific knowledge up to date.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Screen shot of article home page
Table 1
Table 1
Site traffic
Table 2
Table 2
Geographic source of traffic
Table 3
Table 3
Top 10 referring sites
Figure 2
Figure 2
Traffic sources
Figure 3
Figure 3
Example of fake account profile
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Shojania Kaveh G, Sampson Margaret, Ansari Mohammed T, Ji Jun, Doucette Steve, Moher David. How quickly do systematic reviews go out of date? A survival analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2007 Jul 16;147(4):224–233. http://www.annals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=17638714. - PubMed
    1. Moher David, Tetzlaff Jennifer, Tricco Andrea C, Sampson Margaret, Altman Douglas G. Epidemiology and reporting characteristics of systematic reviews. PLoS Med. 2007 Mar 27;4(3):78. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040078. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/17388659. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hoffmann Robert. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nat Genet. 2008;40(9):1047–1051. doi: 10.1038/ng.f.217. http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/ng.f.217. - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schmidt J. Academic Publishing Wiki. 2005. [accessed 2011 Apr 5]. Flexibility in wiki publishing: author desires, peer review and citation. http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/Flexibility_in_wiki_publishing:_author_de....
    1. Heilman James M, Kemmann Eckhard, Bonert Michael, Chatterjee Anwesh, Ragar Brent, Beards Graham M, Iberri David J, Harvey Matthew, Thomas Brendan, Stomp Wouter, Martone Michael F, Lodge Daniel J, Vondracek Andrea, de Wolff Jacob F, Liber Casimir, Grover Samir C, Vickers Tim J, Meskó Bertalan, Laurent Michaël R. Wikipedia: a key tool for global public health promotion. J Med Internet Res. 2011 Jan 31;13(1) doi: 10.2196/jmir.1589. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21282098. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources