Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/"WikiJournals Maintenance Rapid Access Proposal" (ID: 22987696)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
The grant has helped the User Group in the final payments to the previous HR software and service from Workmarket. It has also helped covering basic maintenance of the organization, including registration, tax filing and annual reporting to the United States state departments. This has sustained the organization during an ongoing restructuring to continue its publishing activities at a lower level of funding than before.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
A notable ongoing process is the switch of the registration of WikiJournal from USA to Sweden for logistic purposes. The application for registration in Sweden is still under processing. Until the registration is approved, the organization need to put technical editor activity at a halt, mainly because of lack of insurance coverage. This is the main reason for the absence of any published articles in the grant period. On the other hand, there has been a growth in editors, with two new associate editors joining WikiJournal of Humanities, and one new associate editor joining WikiJournal of Science:
- https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Talk:WikiJournal_of_Humanities/Editors
- https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Talk:WikiJournal_of_Science/Editors
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
WIkiJournal has monthly meetings to plan and coordinate the current financial and organizational transitions. Meeting notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12zNLAyqzHUajBTW29NE2hs2mNbgY9CVnh386UWodI-k/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.tr01crtb4zhq
WikiJournal follows its guidelines for onboarding new Associate Editors: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group/Editorial_guidelines
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Neither agree nor disagree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Neither agree nor disagree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: As this project is primarily for general maintenance, much of what we hope to learn comes from continuing and refining the work we already do. By sustaining WikiJournal’s operations, we aim to better understand how to expand engagement, improve participation from underrepresented communities, and strengthen our impact as an open-access academic publishing platform.
What strategies are most effective in engaging contributors, particularly those new to Wikimedia and open-access publishing?
How does readership and participation evolve when new articles are published, and how do users engage with peer-reviewed content on Wikimedia?
What broader impacts does WikiJournal have beyond raw numbers, particularly in fostering a sense of community and addressing gaps in representation within the Wikimedia movement?
In addition to quantitative measures such as articles published and contributors, we will continue to assess the long-term impact of our work through community feedback and engagement trends, to learn more on how WikiJournal benefits both contributors and readers worldwide.
We have learned more about how sustaining WikiJournal’s basic operations is essential for growth and impact, with recent focus on maintaining Internet domains and Crossref membership for the generation of doi codes for new article publications. We have gained further knowledge in strategies to attract volunteer members to process article submissions until we can contract paid technical editors to help us. Clear editorial guidance, open communication, and visible recognition proved effective in building confidence and sustaining participation. Moving forward, we will use these insights to refine outreach and support for contributors, with special focus on amplifying underrepresented voices and continuing to track both quantitative impact and community benefits.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
It has been a positive experience to find out new ways to organize the user group and drive article processing under the new budget. It has been a disappointment to find a lack of insurance coverage in the United States that fits the budget, but on the other hand it has been a positive experience to find the solution of again using Sweden as the administrative base. From this, we learned the importance of flexibility—when one solution is not feasible, adapting our administrative base allows us to keep the project moving forward within budget.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
Meeting minutes are public to everyone. We are planning on keeping making updates to the social media pages related to the user group on Facebook and Twitter. We also had presence at this year's Wikimania in Nairobi, including sticker distributions and conversations with participants. The project also aims to be linked or at least mentioned at WikiProjects, such as seen at WikiProject Medicine.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 20 | 71 | Total unique editors and administrative board members (https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group/Editors)
Slight increase, with 3 new associate editors. |
| Number of editors | 15 | 68 | https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group/Editors
Slight increase, with 3 new associate editors. |
| Number of organizers | 6 | 9 | Administrative board members, which has remained stable. |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |||
| Wikimedia Commons | 10 | ||
| Wikidata | |||
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underrepresented Community engagement | We are aiming for participants from at least 4 new countries or historically underrepresented countries, such as authors or editors, in line with the opportunities that WikiJournal offers internationally as an academic journal that does not charge for publication or accessing articles. | 4 | 1 | Two new associate editors from Nigeria joined the WikiJournal of Humanities, increasing the project's capabilities to process and publish submissions for free for authors. |
| Qualitative Feedback | Beyond numerical data, we recognise that some of the most valuable insights come from qualitative outcomes. Stories and feedback from editors, authors, reviewers, and readers will help us understand the broader benefits of our work, including how open-access publishing supports researchers who might otherwise face paywall barriers and how WikiJournal contributes to knowledge equity within the Wikimedia movement. | 4 | 1 | Ongoing evaluations and discussions at monthly meetings: |
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
11891.57
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
11891.57
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
N/A
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
Yes
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
$172.20
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future request with PO approval
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We request to add this amount to the subsequent grant period, as approved by the WikiJournal WikiJournal General Support Fund Grant Application 2025 (G-GS-2503-18467)
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)
Review notes
[edit]Review notes from Program Officer:
N/A
Applicant's response to the review feedback.
N/A