I'm currently spending a chunk of time attempting to balance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:New_Zealand_academics for
recentism, gender imbalance and racial imbalance, creating >100
biographies so far.
I can tell you that google scholar is a really crappy measure once you
move outside the modern hard sciences, particularly in fields where the
monograph is still revered.
I can also tell you that there are people who have won the Hector Medal
(for a long time the highest science prize in the country) who are in
neither google scholar nor VIAF (and yes, we're a country hooked up to
the feeder system for VIAF).
As much as we like to think that libraries are central to academia and
research, sometimes the world is not as it appears from our hallowed
windows.
[Anyone struggling to prove notability for a non-straight-white-male is
welcome to ping me on wikipedia for help.]
cheers
stuart
On 21/09/14 06:12, Karen Coyle wrote:
I also was interested because I've recently joined the hardworking group
of Wikipedians who work to distinguish between notable persons and able
self-promoters. In doing so, I've learned a lot about how self-promotion
works, especially in social media. In Wikipedia, to be considered
notable, there needs to be some reliable proof - that is, third-party
references, not provided by the individual in question. In terms of
accomplishments, for example for academics, there is a list of
"measures", albeit not measurable in the scientific sense. [1]
Just for a lark, look at the Google scholar profiles for Joe Murphy,
RoyT, and for myself:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zW1lb04AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LJw73cAAAAAJ&hl=en
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m4Tx73QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
The "h-index", while imprecise, is about as close as you get to
something one can cite as a measure. It's not a decision, but it is an
indication.
I put this forward not as proof of anything, but to offer that
reputation is extremely hard to quantify, but should be looked at with a
critical eye and not taken for granted. It also fits in with what we
already know, which is that men promote themselves in the workplace more
aggressively than women do. In fact, in the Wikipedia group, we mainly
find articles about men whose notability is over-stated. (You can see my
blog post on the problems of notability for women. [2])
I greatly admire your stand for free speech. Beyond this, I will contact
you offline with other thoughts.
kc
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability_%28academics%29
[2] http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2014/09/wpnotability-and-women.html
On 9/20/14, 9:16 AM, Lisa Rabey wrote:
Friends:
I know many of you have already been boosting the signal, and we thank
you profusely for the help.
For those who do not know, Joe Murphy is currently suing nina and I in
$1.25M defamation case because
From our official statement
(http://teamharpy.wordpress.com/why-are-we-being-sued/)
"Mr. Murphy claims that Ms. Rabey “posted the following false,
libelous and highly damaging tweet accusing the plaintiff of being a
‘sexual predator'”3. He further claims that Ms. de jesus wrote a blog
post that “makes additional false, libelous, highly damaging,
outrageous, malicious statements against the plaintiff alleging the
commission of sexual harassment and sexual abuse of women and other
forms of criminal and unlawful behaviour”4.
Both Ms. Rabey and Ms. de jesus maintain that our comments are fair
and are truthful, which we intend to establish in our defense. Neither
of us made the claims maliciously nor with any intent to damage Mr.
Murphy’s reputation."
Right now we need the following most importantly:
1. We have a call out for additional witnesses
(http://teamharpy.wordpress.com/call-for-witnesses/), which have
started to filter in more accounts of harrassment. Please, PLEASE, if
you know/seen/heard anything about the plaintiff, or know someone who
might -- please have them get in touch.
2. Share our site (http://teamharpy.wordpress.com) which includes
details of the case and updates. Please help us get the word out to as
many people as possible about the plaintiff's attempt to silence those
speaking up against sexual harassment and why you won't stand for it.
3.
onations: Many, many of you have asked to help donate to fund our
mounting legal costs. We will have a donation page up soon. Even if
you cannot help financially, please share across your social networks.
We will not be silenced. We will not be shamed.
Thank you again. The outpouring of support that has been happening has
made this all very much worth while.
Best,
Lisa
