Ensuring that Experts Update and Improve Wikipedia SDG Articles

The Stockholm Environment Institute conducted a two-year project to enhance 145 Wikipedia articles linked to SDGs 6 (water and sanitation), 13 (climate action), and 14 (life below water). By partnering with 39 academic experts, the project increased average quality scores for main texts by 22% and lead texts by 24%. The most significant improvements occurred in connectivity, article structure, formatting, and comprehensiveness, while readability remained difficult to improve due to the technical nature of the content and the expertise of the contributors.

• The project achieved a 22% average increase in quality scores for the main texts of the targeted articles, with average scores rising from 60 to 73. Lead texts (abstracts) saw an average improvement of 24%.
• The most substantial quality gains were found in expert-assessed parameters: connectivity and article tree structure improved by 58%, formatting and style guide adherence by 45%, illustration quality by 42%, and comprehensiveness by 38%.
• Readability showed minimal improvement (3%) because the contributing experts were not professional writers or journalists, and the automated scoring tool (Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease) penalized the use of long, technical terms like 'sustainability'.
• The project struggled to overcome existing Wikipedia biases regarding gender and geography; of the 39 collaborating experts, only 18% (seven) were women and only one was from the Global South.
• The project identified a 'missed opportunity' in the poor development of SDG-related content on English Wikipedia, despite the platform's massive reach of 21 billion pageviews per month.

APA

von Muench, E., & Rosemarin, A. (n.d.). Ensuring that Experts Update and Improve Wikipedia SDG Articles. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/rosemarin-icsd-paper-submitted-version-aug-1-2022.pdf

Chicago

von Muench, Elisabeth, and Arno Rosemarin. Ensuring that Experts Update and Improve Wikipedia SDG Articles. Stockholm Environment Institute, n.d. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/rosemarin-icsd-paper-submitted-version-aug-1-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{vonmuenchndensuring, author = {von Muench, Elisabeth and Rosemarin, Arno}, title = {{Ensuring that Experts Update and Improve Wikipedia SDG Articles}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/rosemarin-icsd-paper-submitted-version-aug-1-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }