Wikis and Their Use in the Forced Migration Field

A wiki is defined as "a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content." Most users of the web equate the term "wiki" with Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that can be edited by members of the public. So, for example, you can visit the "refugee," "internally displaced person," or "forced migration" pages on Wikipedia, click on the "edit this page" tab, and add to or edit the entries.

Wikis are not yet a common feature in the forced migration community, but the examples that currently exist demonstrate the diversity of uses to which wikis can be applied. Wikis are being used in the following ways:

To facilitate access to information in a structured and organized fashion:
- The Forced Migration Guide provides access to information resources relating to refugees and forced migration that can be used for reference and research purposes.
- The Gender Training Wiki provides access to information about institutions, trainings and training materials that promote gender equality and the advancement of women.

To share information and promote collaboration within a defined community:
- MIGHEALTHNET hopes to "stimulate the development of good practices by promoting the exchange of information and expertise, both within and between countries. The project will act as a catalyst in the formation of scientific and professional communities in each country concerned with migrant and minority health. It will thus help to create a ‘critical mass’ which can bring about policy changes on the basis of evidence and experience. "
- RefugeeMap gathers together "information on refugee situations, news and policy, and volunteering opportunities around the UK."

For recommendations and feedback:
- The Refugee Archives at UEL recently launched a wiki not only to share information about its services, but also to solicit feedback about its information resources and recommendations for additions to their collection.

As web sites:
- The Feinstein International Center uses a wiki application as the underlying framework for its web site.

As classroom projects:
- The Refugee Wiki Project was set up by 10th graders to raise awareness of refugee issues and to support the work of the International Rescue Committee.

Open Access

Earlier in the year, Health and Human Rights: An International Journal was re-launched as an "open access" publication, in the interest of enhancing "access to human rights knowledge in the health field." (An article included in the first issue elaborates further on the problem of access to biomedical research literature.)

What exactly is "open access," and what is its relevance to refugee and forced migration studies? Open access literature is defined as "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions" (Suber 2004). One particular target of the open access movement has been peer-reviewed research that is usually reported in scholarly journals. Subscription costs and copyright restrictions have meant that those with the most to gain are effectively excluded from accessing the knowledge disseminated in these publications. To overcome these restrictions, two types of delivery mechanisms have been developed to facilitate greater access to research literature: open access journals and open access archives or repositories.

How open are forced migration journals, under the above definition? I listed 17 periodicals in my forced migration guide that focus specifically on issues relating to forced migration and/or humanitarianism (excluding two that report on statistics). Of these, four make all of their issues available online free-of-charge (Forced Migration Review, Humanitarian Exchange, International Review of the Red Cross, and Journal of Humanitarian Assistance). Three of these titles are not peer-reviewed and are practice- rather than academic-oriented. (The exception is the International Review of the Red Cross, which is peer-reviewed. While its publication was recently outsourced to Cambridge University Press, current issues are still being posted online.)

Several journals adhere to a "delayed open access" policy. For example, issues of Refuge are made available online 12 months after first being published in print. The full-texts of back issues of Disasters, International Journal of Refugee Law, and Journal of Refugee Studies are provided through Forced Migration Online (FMO), typically with a three- to five-year lag time.

So roughly half of these (randomly selected, unrepresentative sample of!) journals and other periodicals are open access to one degree or another. Of course, there are many other journals that publish forced migration articles and that may be open access, such as Conflict and Health and Migration Letters. To locate more open access journal titles and articles, try searching the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Open access archives or repositories normally house preprints, conference papers, theses, and other research publications that are not peer-reviewed. Forced Migration Online recently received funding to develop an Open Access Repository System (OARS) and migrate its information resources to an open source platform. This would make its journals (described above) and grey literature digital library more interoperable with other open systems, including the Oxford University Research Archive. Other examples of open access repositories are listed in the Open Access Directory (OAD).

For more information about open access generally, read Peter Suber's short "A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access" (available in multiple languages) or his longer "Open Access Overview."

Forced Migration Guide

For any new researchers out there, I have compiled a guide to information resources relating to refugees and forced migration. It is available as a wiki at http://forcedmigrationguide.pbwiki.com.

You can use the guide in two ways. First, read through the chapters just like you would a regular text. Part one begins with an introduction to the concept of “forced migration” that includes a review of forced migration categories, their legal or policy bases, the principal assistance organizations, and the academic perspective on forced migration definitions. The second part of the guide presents a basic framework for conducting forced migration research both in libraries and on the Internet. It introduces key search concepts and principles to consider in any research undertaking, then describes resources that can be used 1) as starting points for research, 2) to help expand research, and 3) to support research. Part three highlights key information sources in forced migration, such as scholarly journals, reports and books, and discusses strategies for finding additional research literature through databases, library catalogues, search engines, and people.

Second, access the information resources described in the guide either by:

• type of source (e.g., bibliographies, periodicals, glossaries, etc.);
• specific index term (e.g., climate, culture, refugee impact, etc.);
• broad subject category (e.g., asylum/legal protection, mental health, etc.);
• region (if applicable);
• language (if applicable); OR
• using the search function (for example, search on an author or a keyword that is not included as an index term or subject category).

So why a wiki? Basically, it's an easy way to set up a database online. I have no technical experience, but using pbwiki.com, I was able to create over 450 pages of narrative text and bibliographic descriptions, and inter-link them in such a way that - hopefully - makes the guide easy and intuitive to use. I can also regularly update the guide, as well as quickly make corrections to URLs and other bibliographic details.

Hope you find the guide useful!

Posted in Web Sites/Tools.