Wikidata:WikiCite/Researchers in Switzerland
This is a side project funded by WMCH as part and is part of Wikidata:WikiCite/Switzerland
This initiative can be viewed as the second attempt at achieving comprehensive coverage of researchers within a country, following the organized example of IRIS proect in Italy.
History[edit]
This project was created as part of the Wiki Science Competition 2021 activities, and it has been further expanded in preparation for Wiki Science Competition 2023, getting more and more structured over the time.
Main goal[edit]
The primary objective is to expedite the generation of Wikidata entries pertaining to post-docs, qualified technicians, researchers, and professors engaged in scientific and technical fields within the universities, laboratories, hospitals, and research centers of Switzerland (and Liechtenstein). The focus is primarly on individuals active in technical and scientific domains, recognizing that boundaries can sometimes be nuanced. While more structured for scientific and technological profiles, institutional IDs from research repositories are proposed and reconciled without distinction, for example
Given the scale of this initiative, the aim is not to create exhaustive and refined entries, but rather to generate thousands of entries with sufficient clarity and basic information (affiliation, gender, birth date, 1-2 external IDs) for later integration into Wikidata's standard workflow. If entries already exist, they are enhanced, but the primary objective remains to address gaps in coverage. While connecting researchers to their publications is not the primary goal, this meticulous "mapping" will significantly simplify such tasks for future users.
Steps[edit]
Two main axes of items management are involved
- information extracted from Webpages of Institutions
- reconciliation by IDs
Here a list Contacted Institutions for future steps
Statistics[edit]
See this page
[edit]
Items of institutions or departments created during the project[edit]
- Q109552710
- Q109578528
- Ecotox Centre (Q109735395)
- Geobotanical Institute Rübel (Q110009590)
- Swiss Commission on Remote Sensing (Q115246510)
- Institute of Public Health (Q115270637)
- Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany of the University of Zurich (Q121432447)
- Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics (Q121463088)
- Natural History Museum of Fribourg (Q121626479)
- Centre for Financial Research (Q123399614)
- Istituto di ricerche economiche (Q123400050)
- Q123400833
- Institut de droit pénal et de criminologie (Q123437472)
- Institute for Applied Plant Biology (Q123437764)
- Q123716552
- Q123785208
- Q123846623
- Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (Q123860354)
- Institut Central des Hôpitaux Valaisans (Q124003677)
- Swiss Foundation for Research in Social Sciences (Q124093581)
- Q125763561
Items of institutions improved during the project[edit]
The improvement is mostly aliases to improve future reconciliation. Alternative names are extracted from sources on-line and IDs
- Zurich Training College for Teachers of Special Needs (Q1666124)
- Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (Q1423043)
- WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF (Q2537688)
- Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel (Q239080)
- Federal Office for the Environment (Q1005498)
- Pharmacy of the Eastern Vaud Hospitals (Q99838610)
- Geneva University Hospitals (Q3145370)
- Kantonsspital St. Gallen (Q1728153)
- Q108590175
- Swiss UMEF University (Q28224938)
- Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (Q5211467)
- Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno (Q3788804)
- University Hospital Zurich (Q450139)
- University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons (Q1622220)
- University of Innsbruck (Q875788) Austria
- Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (Q30264826)
- KOF Swiss Economic Institute (Q1718872)
- Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (Q30294580)
Also the use of Google Scholar organization ID (P11961) was checked for all items (the above list does not include its siple insertion)
- University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (Q168003) and children institutions
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (Q3152521)
- Q109038680
Identical or similar names refined or created on the way[edit]
These individuals are quite often researchers, morespecifically they are not Swiss or are/were not active in Switzerland. While they are not intended to be included in this work, their inclusion aims to preempt confusion, as information related to the can be accessed while working to clean up metadata.
- Dorothee Kohler (Q95203536)
- Romain Félix (Q125814795)
- Matthias Scherer (Q102414108)
- {Jacques Fournier (Q125778382)
- {Ursula Marti (Q68681745)
- {Scott Burris (Q125766176)
- Luca Castiglioni (Q100593609)
- Sébastien Besson (Q56512373)
- Florian Harms (Q19279652)
- Minh Son Nguyen (Q60389713)
- Martin Wegmann (Q56449320) and Q125506110
- Carole Aubert de Vincelles (Q125413435)
- Christoph Zenger (Q27376)
- Michael Gau (Q125419680)
- Florian Ebner (Q92935756)
- Marco Menichetti (Q57903831)
- Martin Wenz (Q125341073)
- Martin Angerer (Q95312802)
- Johannes Schneider (Q57011827)
- Lorenzo Lepori (Q68585364) and Lorenzo Lepore (Q125055868)
- Robert G. Mair (Q85954251)
- Jasmine M. Truong (Q124838478)
- Sarah Pflug (Q124211923)
- Ilka M. Steiner (Q124210872)
- Nicolas Joly-Tonetti (Q124173846)
- Sebastien Kessler (Q124161237)
- Camille Fallet (Q124151394)
- Benjamin Brueckner (Q124081466)
- Etienne Henry (Q57021156)
- Christophe Paul (Q57451702)
- Bertrand Fournier (Q60217376)
- Hamed Hemati (Q91648342)
- Lorenzo Ramella (Q93253173)
- Hans Rutz (Q95335266)
- Maria Grazia Rossi (Q87484064)
- Sascha Hoogendoorn-Lanser (Q109739170)
- Andre Blondiau (Q96973979)
- Francesco Paolo Frontini (Q3750409)
- Denis Oswald Jordan (Q21536790)
- Denis Jordan (Q115247884)
- Emmanuel P. Baltsavias (Q112463566)
- Baltsavias (Q115248015) family name
- Kunqi Wang (Q91171919)
- Hamed Hemati (Q91648342)
- Lorenzo Ramella (Q93253173)
- Hans Rutz (Q95335266)
- Maria Grazia Rossi (Q87484064)
- Sascha Hoogendoorn-Lanser (Q109739170)
- Andre Blondiau (Q96973979)
- Francesco Paolo Frontini (Q3750409)
- Denis Oswald Jordan (Q21536790)
- Denis Jordan (Q115247884)
- Emmanuel P. Baltsavias (Q112463566)
- Alessia Russo (Q56435667)
- Franziska Schmidt (Q58663938)
- Franziska Schmidt (Q89186850)
- Franziska Anna Schmidt (Q96304409)
- Yasemin Güner (Q121362448)
- Michael Koller (Q96581384)
- Michael R. Kessler (Q50761573)
- Martin Francis Kessler (Q121438287)
- Markus Meier (Q121438560)
- Stephen Miller (Q121505352)
- Mathias Ernst (Q61120413)
- Reza Sohrabi (Q86842893)
- Morgan E Peele (Q91479242)
- Stephanie Wirth (Q95708062)
- Malte Oppermann (Q121769660)
- Peter Riedlberger (Q19414396)
- Martin Jaekel (Q121877058)
- Gabriele Schade-Hasenberg (Q122142753)
- Claudia Galli (Q122178364)
- Luca Mazzucchelli (Q122965893) and Luca Mazzucchelli (Q122966183)
- Fabio Parmeggiani (Q57543036)
- Maude Schneider (Q123121564)
- Olivier Renaud (Q64668039)
- Roland Maurer (Q113718925)
- Didier Grandjean (Q58233084)
- Leonardo Coutinho Cerávolo (Q123252506)
- Kerstin Brinkmann (Q102382236)
- Philippe Royer (Q123422404)
- Christian Bommer (Q87864669)
- Stephen A. Miller (Q106087374)
- Stephen Miller (Q65706506)
- Konstantina Papathanasiou (Q92841739)
- Ulrike Sturm (Q123479502)
- Marco Bernasconi (Q88309973)
- Ilija Corić (Q123574816)
- Emanuele Delucchi (Q112563143)
- Felix Mauch (Q123588086) and Felix Mauch (Q123588080)
- Jean-François Bacchetta (Q123396477)
- Marco Emilio (Q123409074)
- Marco Meli (Q123412517) and Marco Meli (Q123412499)
- Francesco Stefanelli (Q123587437)
- Julie Catusse (Q123614303)
- Christopher Buck (Q95350464)
- Julie Probst (Q123651765)
- Rémy Jacquier (Q123651800)
- Denis Rochat (Q123688412)
- Patrick Roger (Q123735389)
- Pierre Sutra (Q123757646) and Jean-Pierre Sutra (Q123757639)
- Fanny Matthey (Q102430910)
- Stephane Bernard (Q123982347)
- Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann (Q92162667)
- Rodolfo Daniel Bravo (Q102389940)
- Nathalie Christen (Q93881189)
- Laszlo Kiraly (Q56419390)
- Bulent Kaya (Q99588591)
- Bülent Kaya (Q92423330)
- Andrew J. MacIntyre (Q112405073)
- Werner De Bondt (Q28364773)
- Pablo Medina (Q57486717)
- Eric Clifford Graf (Q20963741)
- Alina Matei (Q86162899)
- Felix Kessler (Q59092365)
- Peter Schürmann (Q113623412)
- Gerald Reiner (Q89635005)
- Peter Schnyder (Q3376867)
- Charles Michael Andres Clark (Q112914432)
- Christelle Robert (Q89419813)
- Mauro Minelli (Q109592491)
- Nathalie Tissot (Q124100375)
- Jean François Perret (Q124101760)
- Roberto Costa (Q54185781) and Roberto Costa (Q61163139)
- Philippe Geslin (Q124155485)
Mistakes found in external archives[edit]
This list do not include main target IDs of the projects, see here
- Sabine Felder (Q125517706) IDREF gender is wrong
- sudoc has conflation on ID
- Leona Chandra Kruse (Q109562472) GND ID has wrong sex Done
- Robin Marchant (Q109570196) two Scopus ID (checked with google scholar)
- Jacques Savoy (Q109590633) GND ID has female profession Done
- Mauro Minelli (Q109592491) check if probably Unine, conflation VIAF
- Michael Mommert (Q59671738) conflation on VIAF, reported at GND Done
- Ronny Seiger (Q109607792) GND ID has wrong sex Done
- Matthias Ernst (Q67223346) VIAF conflated
- conflated of two profiles,to be sent via mail to UniNe
- Gilles Eckard (Q50990878) GND typo double article Done
- Anaele Simon (Q124089271) GND typo Simon, Anae͏̈le
- Camille Fallet (Q124151035) and Camille Fallet (Q124151394) conflation VIAF
- Bertil Cottier (Q124155686) see [1] and LinkedIn, sex is male, IdRef is wrong
- Mathilda Fatton (Q124155702) fragmented VIAF
- Sara Cotelli (Q77033821) fragmented VIAF
- Janette Bobalova (Q124324193) Euchatel?
- Julien Billarant (Q124155856) check VIAF and IDREF
- Jean Guinand (Q124622066) [2] typo in birth year, item to be merged
Future work[edit]
This might be useful to improve the usability of the data (in-depth quality and minimal confusion)
Messy general situations with common names[edit]
Missing given names[edit]
- Najla
- Dimche
- Urs-Beat
- Rolphe
- Anne-Linda
- Feiyi
- Rimjhim
Missing family names[edit]
To be done in the long term, listed for statistical purpose
- Sprumont
- Westerwinter
- Fauchère
- Osztovics
- Grutta
- Rosat
- Tadorian
- Raffournier
- Rigozzi (segnalato)
- Valterio
- Plomb
- Gazareth
- Corbellari (segnalato)
- Francescutto (segnalato)
- Hemati
- Vachtsevanou
- Raetzo
- Hosi
- Maskarinec
- Leontsinis
- Cabalzar
- Buetler/Bütler
- Zurwerra
- Bonesana
- Danani
- Sapozhnik
- Stenflo
- Cannelle
- Hajnsek
- Gressin
- Bonesana
- Derboni
- Zaffalon
- Sharygina
- Calciolari
- Bezani
- Morese
- Fiordelli
- Schönweger
- Broffoni
- Del Notaro
- Jaeggli
- Cheridito
- Heiri
- Delaloye
- Debbané
- Aymoz
- Ganguin
- Joerin
- Bukenberger
- Del Duce
- Csucker
Comments[edit]
- The problem of similar names is much stronger in the German-speaking world than in other areas. This scenario will take a while to clean up. The core groups in the Swiss academia are names in German, French, Italian and English (since it is international and western-leaning, the main group not involved in a Swiss national language it's them). Other areas are active and they can be tricky (e.g. Spanish names) but statistically these are the 4 main groups to address. Now...
- Anglophones are often in external archives which are more precise on the issue of homonyms and use of middle names, probably because of some ongoing and recurring needs in the past; they already faced it and they reasonably deal with it in many international databases.
- Francophones rely mostly on French centralized archive that are more or less focused, with limited mistakes. Maybe there are missing information, but not huge mistakes.
- People with Italian names rely on a big community of volunteers active in Italy, so information on external databases might be problematic but Wikidata items are quite good and they are a driving force for improvement.
- So the main problem before getting an efficient use of Wikidata items of researchers in Switzerland is probably the maintenance of common recurring German names; clearly the lack of care in certain "areas" of Germany and Austria is not helping at the moment and if Switzerland wants to use the database, some additional maintenance on the other side of the border might be required, at least at the beginning. For social and human science, the problem is probably bigger.
- We tried to focus on the technical and scientific fields. So far, the areas of particle physics, architecture, informatics and computer science, geology are those requiring to fill more gaps. Also, some medical profiles that stopped publishing in the early 2000s could show gaps on Wikidata despite having external IDs. That's why we have started with those areas. They require more careful manual insertion. Biologists and chemists for example can be quickly checked with some massive OpenRefine import.
- The researcher with highest H-index found amongst newly-created items is currently Roger D. Hersch (Q124300857) (January 2024, H index 23). Most of researchers with H-index above 20 are usually created at least via ORCID, the biggest gap is in profile who have not been active after the early 2010s.
Future developments[edit]
Based on IDs to be created, future literacy events can be created in cooperation with Swiss Universities and learned institutions, if interested. The goal is to keep up-to-date the database, make the ID coverage more robust for the existing items, and fill gaps outside the technical and scientific fields.
Queries[edit]
See subpage