Incorporation of text and pictures from doctoral theses under a creative commons licence (thus material that is readily available) is in some cases an efficient way to grow Wikipedia. In my opinion, the potential for importing high-quality texts is likely to be significantly greater than the capacity of authors to write high-quality texts.
The literature overview section of PhD theses are in some cases very usable and typically well referenced (even though some drawbacks exist). Only the literature overview of a PhD thesis is suited as it is backed up by peer-reviewed literature. There is a common misunderstanding: PhD theses are not peer-reviewed and are not appropriate as a source for Wikipedia. However, the theory overview section of a PhD thesis is merely a summary of peer-reviewed literature such as any common wikipedia article.
Where to find
editNumerous depositories exist with PhD theses under a free licence, for example:
- Use Google Advanced Search and set "usage rights" to "free to use, share or modify, even commercially". You can than search for
PhD thesis specific topic, for examplePhD thesis polymers. - In Wikimedia Commons, see c:Category:Doctoral_theses
- Oxford CC 2.5
- st-andrews
- https://oda.oslomet.no/oda-xmlui/handle/10642/6802/browse?type=subject
The text should be under the right licence, please refer to Wikipedia:Copying_text_from_other_sources#Can_I_copy_from_open_license_or_public_domain_sources?
Problem: Texts might be too complex
editThere has been the concern raised that such texts are usually too difficult to understand to be included in Wikipedia. The texts are indeed often difficult to understand - but not always. There are different strategies to deal with the high this problem:
- Sometimes a complicated text concerns a very specific topic that is more interesting for experts, but is within the relevance criteria (example: text from a PhD thesis in Nitro-Mannich_reaction). The lower comprehensibility is not a problem, because the addressees can understand the text. The text can be inserted directly into the corresponding article.
- Sometimes the text concerns a topic of general interest and the thesis is written in an easily understandable way (example: text from a thesis in Hydrogel or in Peptide therapeutics). The text can be inserted directly into the corresponding article.
- Sometimes the text concerns a topic of general interest and the PhD thesis is written in a complicated way (example: a section from a PhD thesis on the topic of emotions, but I have not inserted it yet due to time constraints). In this case, the text can go into a separate article and is linked using the Template:Main article and briefly summarized (e.g., in the Emotion article, link a new article "Scientific definition of emotion").
It is important, however, that even in the case of very special topics, at least the introduction of the articles must remain comprehensible even for laymen.
How to do
editOnce you have copied text from a PhD thesis into a Wikipedia article please mark it via the Template:CC-notice as for example in Carboxylate–based_metal–organic_frameworks#References.
See Wikipedia:COMPLIC for an overview of usable licences.
I have written a python script to re-format the references of the text for direct import in wikipedia (in PhD thesis at the end of the text, in wikipedia in <ref>-Tags within the text). Please let me know if you are interested, I am willing to share the script.
Disadvantages
editUsing text from PhD theses may have potential drawbacks:
- The text might be very technical, a introduction might have to be written or the text might not be suited at all. You should be adept in the field to evaluate if the text is general enough to suit Wikipedia's requirements.