About : SOKI Wiki Editorial Policy

Introduction

What is SOKI

The Southern Ocean Knowledge and Information wiki (SOKI) aims to provide a source of standardised and validated (peer-reviewed) reference material on Southern Ocean ecosystems and on the research tools used in the region.

SOKI also aims to provide a forum for researchers to exchange and link information, ideas and commentaries with respect to this material as well as being used to coordinate research projects

SOKI is designed to enable straightforward and efficient:

• management of information content,
• input and updating of new information,
• extraction of information, and
• involvement of a community of users.

Background 

This Editorial Policy aims to provide a clear and logical description of how the content on the wiki is to be managed.

It gives an overview of:

1. the structure of the wiki,
2. provides detail on the generation, development and updating of content, and 
3. outlines the administration and governance arrangements for the management of the wiki.

Certain aspects of this Editorial Policy will be further refined as content and uptake of the wiki increases. 

Wiki structure

The wiki is accessed through http://soki.aad.gov.au - at present it is a private wiki and no pages or content are publicly viewable. All users require a login and password.

SOKI wiki is an online collaborative project: a voluntary association of individuals and groups working to develop a common resource of human knowledge on the state of the Southern Ocean. 

Using a wiki to develop this common resource allows for:

• Community-driven collaboration
• Dynamic creation and editing of content
• A reduced timeframe for research to be made accessible to the Southern Ocean research community (in contrast to the time taken to be available through journal publication).

Confluence

The wiki is built using Confluence v4.1.9, a commercial software package. Confluence is a commonly used platform for information collaboration within the science community (e.g. CSIRO, GACS).

Confluence allows for the development of a flexible and easy to use wiki, without the requirement for users to understand wiki markup language. It is both a content management system and a wiki platform that allows for permissions to control access to content.

Content within Confluence is built around the concepts of spaces and pages. There is an active developer community that provides access to plugins and macros, which extend the functionality of the wiki framework.

Spaces and Pages

SOKI is divided into five main spaces:

1. Ecological Review and Application

   The Ecological Review and Application space provides reviews of the literature on particular themes, descriptions of the application of ecological knowledge in policy and management, or summaries of the policy and administrative environment in which science may play a part.  For many, this space provides the background, syntheses and conclusions of ecological studies and applications. 

   
   

2. Ecological Knowledge 

   The Ecological Knowledge space consolidates the output of research on components of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. The space is used as an information base to support current and future projects, theoretical developments and policy initiatives. It does this through summaries of data, published and unpublished information, and interrogation of Antarctic datasets available online. All material within this space includes citation of published information, web links and directives to further information where applicable. Information in this space is informed by the Research Tools and Activities Space, and is drawn upon by the content within the Ecological Review and Application Space. 

   
   

3. Research Tools and Activities

   The Research Tools and Activities space describes current research activities and available tools for research on the Southern Ocean ecosystem. These are summarised by: 

   • descriptions of methods that sample, monitor and model the status of marine biota and their habitats,
   • links to datasets or descriptions of data generated by projects, 
   • project descriptions,  and
   • ecological indicators - their function, attributes, current status and trends, management strategies and objectives 
      
   There is also a research community section that lists the various organisations involved in Southern Ocean research, with links to individual researcher profiles.
        

4. SOKI Administration

   
   

5. FAQ

The first three spaces are determined around the questions 'What do we know?', 'How is the knowledge used?' and 'What research is being done, by whom and how?', followed by adminstration of the site and FAQs that provide the user guide.

Wiki Content

Page creation, placement and submission 

Page creation begins with a discussion between the Space Editor and Page Author(s) to determine the correct place within the wiki structure for a particular page. Name and contact details for each site editor will be placed at the top level of each space, so they can be contacted for any queries.

All pages within the wiki require the use of a standard SOKI global template. This allows for a consistent format and structure within the wiki to allow for more efficient information flow, discovery and extraction. Specific templates for particular subject areas have been, and can be, developed in consultation with the Site Administrator.

We are developing an "Instructions for authors" page, which describes the processes and requirements around page creation and content development. 

Page editing

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Pages within the wiki are known as "working wiki pages". The content on these pages can be edited (or commented on) at any time by anyone with access. Content development and editing can be restricted to certain individuals (e.g. authors/collaborators) or it can be open to the wiki community (i.e. page viewing and editing is unrestricted). Once content is finalised the authors may wish to submit the page to the Editorial Board for review.

The process of review, outlined in the above diagram, leads to a 'locked' version of the working wiki page (i.e. the page can be viewed but not edited or commented on). While the page is locked, it is subjected to peer review, revised by the authors (the extent of which is determined by the review) and resubmitted to the Editorial Board. Once accepted, the final version is converted to a stand-alone PDF and assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier; a unique identification code assigned to online articles). The PDF can then be cited just as any journal article would. The "working wiki pages" remain within the wiki structure, and can continue to be developed, edited and modified. A link to the PDF document will be available at the top of the working wiki page. 

Ownership/authorship

Authorship of a wiki page is no different from that of a scientific publication, and is governed by the principles of the Vancouver Protocol, summarised below. Further detail can be found on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors webpage.

Authorship credit should be based on the following three conditions:

1. substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data
2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. final approval of the version to be published.

When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the content. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Other members of the group who did not contribute as an author (as defined above) should be listed in the Acknowledgements. 

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chairperson who provided only general support.

Once a page has been finalised, sent for review and 'locked' (see above), a new page update can be initiated by either the author or the wiki community. It is then submitted to the Editorial Board for consideration and authorship can then be reviewed if required.

While every effort will be taken to maintain the standards of the wiki, it is important to note that the content of any given page may recently have been changed or altered by someone whose opinion does not correspond with the state of knowledge in the relevant fields.  

Version control

Version control within SOKI wiki is currently determined by Confluence's default settings - this means a new version of the page is created every time someone changes the page, edits the text and saves the page. Whilst this type version control is beneficial in the development of content (i.e. all changes to a page, no matter how minor, can be seen), it is not our preferred option once content on a page is sufficiently developed such that it would require review. 

We are currently investigating third-party options for developing a draft-publish version control, where the developmental versions of the page would be superceded (i.e. a Version 2.0) once content had been reviewed. Incorporated into this draft-publish version control would be elements of automation for the workflow steps outlined above. 

Copyright and Intellectual Property

As a consequence of Australia's adherence to the Antarctic Treaty System and specifically Article (III).(1).(c), the Commonwealth of Australia makes Australian Antarctic program data publicly available via a Creative Commons “Attribution Only” license (View Legal Code). It is understood that the content within SOKI wiki would come under the same licence. See the Creative Commons web site for more detail. Whenever a work is copied or redistributed under this type of Creative Commons licence, the original creator (and any other nominated parties) must be credited as the source of the data. This license has no other restrictions on use.

The intention of providing for page authorship is that any intellectual property generated as a result of the use of this wiki will be credited accordingly. 

When an individual becomes part of the SOKI wiki community, they will be required to agree to our 'Wiki community guidelines' as well as acknowledging the following (note these are adapted from the Polar Information Commons):

• that submitted materials are already in the public domain, or that they have clear rights to make these materials openly accessible through the wiki;
• that these contributions are accessible and searchable online;
• that, if requested, they will make reasonable efforts to provide additional information about their contributed materials, e.g., to help document the quality of their submitted materials and to ensure their long-term usability.
• that they will make reasonable efforts to provide appropriate notification to the community of any significant errors in their contributed materials or descriptions, if any are discovered after submission.

Images, maps, diagrams

Any images or diagrams used within SOKI wiki are to be credited accordingly. e.g. Image © Joe Bloggs/Australian Antarctic Division. Use of any material marked © author_name or © photographer_name is not permitted without specific permission from that author, or photographer.

If images have been obtained from the web, as part of the credit there should be an accompanying link to the page where the image was obtained.

All maps presented on the wiki need a brief statement on the data quality and assurance used to generate the map, and a link to where the map was generated (e.g. the AADC).

Peer review (incl. post-publication review)

As outlined above, once page content is finalised, authors may wish to submit the page to the Editorial Board for review and subsequent publication as a stand-alone PDF document.

Review of the wiki page can occur by three means.

1. External peer-review
   1. individuals from outside of the wiki community will be contacted and invited to review the page
2. Internal peer-review
   1. reviewers will be selected from within the wiki community and invited to review the page (note that Space or Content editors cannot be reviewers)
3. Community review
   1. page will be open to the wiki community for comment

After the page has been subjected to review (external or internal) and page authors have addressed reviewer comments, the Editorial board can approve the creation of a stand-alone PDF document. Review processes are expected to be similar to those of a peer-reviewed journal.

Decisions regarding the fate of community reviewed pages are under consideration.

Any review we seek needs to be succinct, well organised, constructive and diplomatic. We are developing a Guidelines for Reviewers page, which articulates the following:

• Wiki scope and standards - an introduction to the wiki describing what the wiki is about.
• Review conditions
  • turn-around time (2-3 weeks)
  • publication ethics 
• Information relating to the content for review
  • a clear description of the purpose of the content
    • e.g. the page contains information to be incorporated into models
    • e.g. the page contains information to provide development of a standard method for data collection
• Level of detail required for review
  • appropriateness of the publications cited
  • identify known data gaps/data biases
  • current work being undertaken but unpublished that may provide additional information
  • major strengths and weaknesses of the page
  • identification of errors, inappropriate references

Citation

Common language

The wiki's language is to be in British English, with limited jargon. Its intention is to be accessible to people with a range of experience with Southern Ocean science.

Any non-standard terms, abbreviations and acronyms are to be included in the Glossary. 

Keywords/Tags/Labels

Confluence pages use labels as a way of describing and identifying content. These are also generally known as keywords or tags.

Confluence allows for a free text search of content throughout the whole wiki, so we use labels as a mechanism for grouping content with other content, rather than describing the content of a single page in isolation. They allow for links to be made between different areas of the wiki, and to enhance information discovery

SOKI currently allows a free assignment of labels to a page. As a general rule for SOKI, all pages should have at least one label. Our preference is to have more labels than less. 

Pages should be labelled with their space name and plain english words that describe the content (e.g. penguins, reproduction, abundance, biota) - as would be the case for keywords in a peer reviewed journal article. We have developed a macro to provide a list of commonly used labels as part of the global page template for the wiki. The dashboard also contains a 'tag cloud' which shows commonly used keywords - this can be used as a guide if required. See the FAQ or contact the Content Editor for your space for assistance with any labelling issues.

Administration

Stewardship - Roles & Responsibilities

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SOKI is currently established through the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Hobart.  A Managing Editor is responsible for its administration and development as well as overseeing the Editorial Board.  The Managing Editor is responsible to the Chief Scientist of the Australian Antarctic Science Program.  The Managing Editor is supported by a Steering Committee that oversees the policies, development and direction of SOKI.

Wiki strategic management and development will be overseen by the Editorial Board, the Site Administrator and the Content Manager. 

Roles and responsibilities for the positions identified in the above diagram are here.

Dispute resolution

Disputes will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The first point of contact for any disputes is the Content Editor.

Referral to senior members of the Editorial team will be at the Content Editors discretion.

The Editorial Board's decision on any disputes is final.

Related Resources

Instructions for authors

Guidelines for reviewers

FAQs

Wiki community guidelines

Citation

Page contributors: 

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