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A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters

Nature Genetics volume 40, pages 1047–1051 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

WikiGenes is the first wiki system to combine the collaborative and largely altruistic possibilities of wikis with explicit authorship. In view of the extraordinary success of Wikipedia there remains no doubt about the potential of collaborative publishing, yet its adoption in science has been limited. Here I discuss a dynamic collaborative knowledge base for the life sciences that provides authors with due credit and that can evolve via continual revision and traditional peer review into a rigorous scientific tool.

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Figure 1: Authorship tracking and reputation system.
Figure 2: Citation of scientific terminology and references.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Branco Weiss Fellowship, Society in Science. I am thankful to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for hosting the iHOP information resource, C. Sander and M. Ramirez-Gaite for helpful discussion, and T. Berners-Lee and D. Weitzner for their support.

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  1. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert Hoffmann

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Correspondence to Robert Hoffmann.

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Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nat Genet 40, 1047–1051 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.f.217

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