Sarabnas

Hello Wikipedians!

Welcome to my user page :)

About Me

My name is Sarah Sanbar, and I am currently finishing up my second MA in Conflict, Security, and Development in the War Studies Department of King's College London. I also have a background in International Law (Human Rights and Humanitarian Law), and a professional background in the nonprofit world.

I am fascinated by Wikipedia, and these last few weeks especially have gone deep deep down the rabbit hole. I am especially interested in the epistemology of Wikipedia, and the ways it both challenges and reinforces dominant and colonial modes of knowledge production. The fact that it's free and created by volunteers blows my mind even more, and I think it's a really special place on the internet :)

Research on Wikipedia Wars and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

I am writing my MA dissertation on Wikipedia and the Israel-Palestine conflict. I will be looking at the process of collaborative knowledge production on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the effect it has on bias in the articles. This will involve understanding the profiles and motivations of editors, contention/controversy and dispute resolution in the talk pages, and bias in the final article.

For more information, you can check out my meta-wiki research page, where I will be posting my findings when I am done.

Survey of Wikipedians

Survey title: Understanding the Profile and Motivations of Wikipedia Editors on pages relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict

If you are an active (or previously active) editor of pages related to the conflict, I would love to hear from you. I would greatly appreciate if you could take 5 minutes to fill out this quick survey before 15 AUGUST 2021.

Why have I been invited to take part?

You have been invited to take part because you are one of the top-ten contributors (according to https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo) to one or more of the articles in my corpus (top-importance articles related to Israel or Palestine). This may be a surprise to you - perhaps you do not actively edit these articles, or perhaps your main contributions were grammatical or minor. If you believe you have been invited to fill out this survey in error, my apologies and feel free to ignore this.

What is the purpose of the study?

The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the profiles and motivations of Wikipedia editors active on pages relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict. This study aims to examine how editors’ positionality may bias the narrative presented on Wikipedia pages.

What will happen if I take part?

If you agree to take part you will complete a survey anonymously. The survey will ask you questions about your demographic profile, edit activity on Wikipedia, and impressions on Wikipedia’s content on the Israel-Palestine conflict.  The survey will take you approximately 5-7 mins to complete.   

Do I have to take part?

Participation is completely voluntary. You should only take part if you want to and choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you in any way. If you choose to take part you will be asked to provide your consent. To do this you will be asked to indicate that you have read and understood the information provided and that you consent to your anonymous data being used for the purposes explained.

You are free to withdraw at any point during the completion of the survey, without having to give a reason. Withdrawing from the study will not affect you in any way. Once you submit the survey, it will no longer be possible to withdraw from the study because the data will be fully anonymous. Please do not include any personally identifiable information in your responses.

Data Handling and Confidentiality

This research is anonymous. This means that nobody, including the researchers, will be aware of your identity, and that nobody will be able to connect you to the answers you provide, even indirectly. Your answers will nevertheless be treated confidentially and the information you provide will not allow you to be identified in any research outputs/publications. Your data will be held securely in a folder only the conductor of this research has access to for a period of 2 months, until the submission date (26/08/2021).

Ethical Clearance Reference Number

MRSU-20/21-25648

Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions, and I am happy to share my findings with anyone who requests it :)

Thanks,

Sarah