This guide is designed to help people who are new to editing Wikipedia.
Getting started
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Log into DashboardLogging into UMN Women in STEM Wikithon will allow us to see the progress we are making at today's event. Pass Code: edimbtvj
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Practice document for SandboxUse this to copy and paste a bit into your sandbox to practice with.
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Entries to Edit - UMN Women in STEMIncludes entries to edit along with additional resources
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Quick Guide to Wikipedia EditingGuide walks through how to create an account and tutorial on how to edit Wikipedia entries
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Wikipedia: Five pillarsThe fundamental principles of Wikipedia can be summarized in five "pillars":
Guidelines
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Layout GuideA quick explanation of some of the easy parts of laying out an article
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How to edit a page in WikipediaDescribes how to edit or make new pages
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Avoiding conflict of interestDescribes what conflict of interest or COI is and provides examples of what not to do
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Guidelines for writing biographies of living people in WikipediaBest practices for creating and editing biographies.
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Writing better articles for WikipediaTips on how to write an effective article, including information on layout, style, and how to make an article clear, precise and relevant to the reader.
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Wikipedia's Style GuideWikipedia has a style guide of its own, similar to APA, MLA, and Chicago.
Resources
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Help finding sourcesGeneral overview of helpful sources.
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Academic Search PremierA great place to start your research on any topic, search multidisciplinary, scholarly research articles. This database provides access to scholarly and peer reviewed journals, popular magazines and other resources. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
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Google Scholar (Setup connection to get to PDFs)Use Google Scholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, research institutes, and scholarly repositories from colleges and universities. If you are using from off-campus access, change the "Library Settings" to University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Look for the "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" links in your Google Scholar search results to access full text and PDFs. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
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Libraries SearchSearch the University of Minnesota Libraries to find books, scholarly journal articles, news, magazines, media, and other items in the University's collection. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
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University of Minnesota Archives
University Archives is the home for historical documents, departmental collections, data, photographs, publications, and websites of the University of Minnesota-Twin Citiets, including faculty papers and research and administrative records. -
University of Minnesota Digital ConservancyThe University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (UDC) is a venue for faculty to deposit open access copies of their scholarly work, a showcase for select student works, such as dissertations and honors theses, a home to the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), and centralized, searchable access to institutional digital records including those of the University of Minnesota Archives.
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Experts@MinnesotaUse Experts@Minnesota to search profiles of University of Minnesota faculty and research staff by collegiate or department, research interests and their publications. Find potential collaborators, learn about the expertise of our faculty and research staff, and about funding sources received by other researchers.
Best practices
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References dos and don'tsReferencing is key to making Wikipedia reliable and trustworthy.
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Referencing for beginnersWalks through how to insert references.
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Reliable sources and how to tellWikipedia articles should be based mainly on reliable secondary sources, i.e., a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere.
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Neutral point of viewAll encyclopedic content on Wikipedia must be written from a neutral point of view
Last Updated: Nov 25, 2025 6:09 PM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/wikipedia