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Our goal is to make Wikimedia sites more useful for people seeking knowledge across the globe. Research helps us live up to our mission. We turn research questions into opportunities to empower new readers and contributors. We use research-backed insights to inform new technologies, products, and programs. We partner with researchers around the world to better understand knowledge making and sharing.
01
Building a positive community culture
Harassment is a pervasive issue on the internet—even on Wikipedia. We’re working to understand and combat harassment in Wikimedia projects and discussion spaces.
02
Improving sources and citations
Verifiable citations are critical to open knowledge projects like Wikipedia. We are building an open repository of sources to make it easier to manage citations.
03
Understanding reader behavior
Every second 6,000 people visit Wikipedia. We want to know why. Our research aims to understand their motivations and needs so we can identify opportunities to improve.
04
Increasing editor diversity
Wikimedia is a global movement but participation has been easier for some users than others. We are partnering with communities to understand why. With everyone’s help we can increase editor diversity across our projects.
05
Helping new editors
Learning how to contribute to Wikimedia projects can be complex. We worked with new editors in South Korea and the Czech Republic to understand why they edit and how we could make it easier.
06
Protecting the open internet
The law should allow internet platforms to stay out of editorial decisions so that people can share and speak freely. We research how policies affect the way information is shared online.
Partners help us tackle challenging research projects.
We work with researchers from institutions such as EPFL, Cornell University, Google Jigsaw, Stanford University, and the University of Minnesota.
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Questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's research work? Get in touch with our Research team.
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See our work in the wild
Wiki Workshop
The annual research forum brings together researchers exploring all aspects of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
Wikimedia Research Showcase
We publicly share research findings and developments on the third Wednesday of every month at 11:30 Pacific Time.
Help us unlock the world’s knowledge.
As a nonprofit, Wikipedia and our related free knowledge projects are powered primarily through donations.
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