Wikiversity:Scholarly ethics

This is a failed English Wikiversity policy proposal. It failed to reach consensus and/or was rejected by the community, and it should not be considered authoritative.

Wikiversity participants are free to explore topics without having to adhere to the restrictions of the traditional Wikimedia Foundation Neutral point of view (NPOV) policy. Wikiversity pages that are edited without strict adherence to NPOV policy must be explicitly marked as such. Wikiversity participants who edit pages where NPOV policy is not enforced must first make a personal and public commitment to the Wikiversity policy on scholarly ethics. The scholarly ethics policy serves to make sure that Wikiversity remains devoted to a search for knowledge and a support system to help people learn about the world. The policy on scholarly ethics is designed to keep Wikiversity free from propaganda, deception and intellectual dishonesty such as plagiarism. Wikiversity does not exist as a platform to support advocates of particular political movements, religious ideologies or scientific, legal or historical theories. Wikiversity can contain scholarly study of all topics, but Wikiversity does not exist for the purpose of advocating or advancing particular points of view, movements or belief systems.

Policy

When Wikiversity members choose to edit pages that exist outside of the confines of a neutral point of view (NPOV) policy, they take on an added level of responsibility and are open to extra scrutiny. Anyone editing Wikiversity articles that exist outside of the NPOV category must

Edit using a registered username and maintain a verified email address.
Keep the "Scholarly ethics" template {{Scholarly ethics}} on their Wikiversity user page:

This Wikiversity editor in their contributing to scholarly works, agrees to strong scholarly ethics. In particular this Wikiversity editor:

Is committed to presenting a balanced, objective, accurate, and informative account of all relevant scholarly evidence, facts, analysis, and ideas within all scholarly topics of study in the interest of full disclosure and honesty.
Does not condone illegal, deceptive, or otherwise unethical practices in their own contributions or in others'.
May for research purposes contribute outside of the restrictions of NPOV.
Will respond to all questions about the ethical caliber of their contributions on their talk page.

The “scholarly ethics” template indicates that a Wikiversity editor accepts and supports the Wikiversity policy on scholarly ethics. It explicitly states that the editor will not attempt to use Wikiversity as a platform for advocating or advancing propaganda or any other type of deception or intellectual dishonesty, but rather, the editor is devoted to scholarly consideration of their topic of study. This means not distorting or hiding evidence and not crafting illegal, deceptive, dishonest or otherwise unethical accounts of facts or ideas. Wikiversity scholars can, and must, study their subjects with devotion to honesty and the highest scholarly standards.

It is only by strictly adhering to the highest standards of scholarly ethics that members of the Wikiversity community secure and maintain an opportunity to participate in the Wikiversity community.

Trust and responsibility

The responsibility to adhere to high standards of scholarly ethics is automatically imposed upon you when you decide to be a Wikiversity editor. Being a trusted member of the Wikiversity community is something that you must earn by showing that you accept and adhere to the responsibilities imposed upon you by the community. If you do not understand or do not accept this, then save yourself a lot of trouble and do not try to edit Wikiversity. Until you demonstrate that you can be trusted, all of your edits will be subjected to a high level of scrutiny and any questionable edits that you make will be reverted or challenged. A demonstrated pattern of vandalism or disdain for the practice of scholarly ethics will result in blocks from editing and ultimately a ban from participation.

Editing Wikiversity outside of the restrictions imposed by the Wikimedia Foundation NPOV policy is not a right, it is a privilege. That privilege can be easily lost by any Wikiversity participant who does not adhere to the highest standards of scholarly ethics.

Wikiversity will always strive to keep a “culture of thoughtful diplomatic honesty”.

Policy

Trust and responsibility

See also