"1. Wiki edits do not count for tenure. 2. Wiki edits take away time from my research. 3. Wiki edits could actually damage my reputation. 4. I do not know what that would be good for. 5. I do not know how to do that. 6. I do not want others to modify what I wrote. 7. The quality of wiki articles in my field is rather low, and I value my time too highly to help fix that. 8. I do not want to spend my time correcting stuff that had been correct before but was vandalized in between. 9. I am not allowed to post my original research in there. 10. None of my peers does it. 11. None of my peers reads here. 12. I do not want others to see the kind of mistakes I make. 13. Why should I deal with an encyclopedia if I have access to primary sources?" Update: Beta version of a survey on the matter is at http://bit.ly/AcaWP . - Daniel Mietchen from Bookmarklet

@achimraschka @fischblog here we go with a first draft of the ten reasons that keep experts off of wikis. - Daniel Mietchen

another possibility: involved in too many other projects already and can't handle another area of focus. Similar to #2, but more about fragmented focus than time constraints. - Heather Piwowar

Negative perceptions: I don't want to be associated with those nasty "wiki" things... - Cameron Neylon

another: I already do lots of writing and editing and don't want to do any more. - Heather Piwowar

another one: "Really !? I can edit an article in wikipedia ?" - Pierre Lindenbaum

@ Cameron I would consider that as being part of #3 above. Added in all the rest plus some rough categories. Current version: "Lack of incentives 1. Wiki edits do not count for tenure. 2. I do not know what that would be good for. 3. None of my peers does it. 4. None of my peers comes here to read about my research. [edit] Disincentives 1. Wiki edits take away time from my research. 2. Wiki edits could actually damage my reputation. 3. It does not fit into my workflows. 4. The quality of wiki articles in my field is rather low, and I value my time too highly to help fix that. 5. I am not allowed to post my original research in there. 6. The rules are too complicated. [edit] Other commitments 1. I am involved in too many other projects already and can't handle another area of focus. 2. I already do lots of writing and editing and don't want to do any more. [edit] Attitudes 1. I do not want to argue with other contributors who have no understanding of the subject but are sure they have. 2. I do not want others to modify what I wrote. 3. I do not want to spend my time correcting stuff that had been correct before but was vandalized in between. 4. I do not want others to see the kind of mistakes I make. 5. Why should I deal with an encyclopedia if I have access to primary sources? 6. I dislike the user interface. 7. Wikipedia? That's a non-reliable source! [edit] Lack of knowledge about Wikipedia 1. Really!? I can edit an article in Wikipedia? 2. I do not know how to do that. " - Daniel Mietchen

One that might be a variant of #9, but probably counts as its own thing: "I don't want the hassle of dealing with Wikipedia's local culture." More people than have edited Wikipedia articles have heard horror stories about nonsensical edit wars, and don't want to deal with that. Having to argue for the significance of an academic scientist whose page is a stub, while lengthy and lovingly detailed pages exist for fictional characters strikes a lot of people as absurd, bordering on Kafkaesque. - Chad Orzel

I found that people who are inclined to blog tend to avoid community-driven activities like wikis and vice versa. I guess many people look at wikipedia and simply decide that it's not their style. - Lars Fischer

I could see at least five items in that original list where you could substitute almost any other Science 2.0 tool and it still would hold. With some tweaking probably the rest too. I'm starting to think about what the list of corresponding come-backs might be. - Dan Hagon from Android

Thanks for all these comments. I've added Dan's. Now off to #glamwiki . Will get back to this upon return. - Daniel Mietchen

And here comes the seemingly inevitable request for deletion: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki... . - Daniel Mietchen

I am sure WikiEducator would be happy to host the page - Kubke

shouldn't it be turned into a web poll ? - Pierre Lindenbaum

The request for deletion debate ended with "keep" this time. @ Pierre: Yes, and help with setting one up is welcome. - Daniel Mietchen

@Daniel I'll create the poll on G-Docs in the evening - Pierre Lindenbaum

@Daniel I just send you an invitation for editing the document. - Pierre Lindenbaum

Here is the poll : http://goo.gl/5GvXC - Pierre Lindenbaum

Cool - can you add a "Tick all that apply" notice? Merci! - Daniel Mietchen

Awesome, why not a 5-point likert scale then? (5 radio buttons) - that would make it so much useful! - ReaderMeter

I guess we should do some test runs before announcing it far and wide. - Daniel Mietchen

Folks, bear with us while we reformat the poll - ReaderMeter

Survey in beta: Reasons why academics do (not) contribute to Wikipedia http://bit.ly/AcaWP . Please provide feedback here. - Daniel Mietchen

I left most of the "I DO contribute to wikipedia" section blank, because I seldom do contribute there. It didn't return an error, but it wasn't exactly clear what I should do there. - Bill Hooker

I also left the 'I DO contribute to wikipedia' section blank, although I contribute to other wikis. - Kubke

Bill Hooker, Kubke -- yes that's what we are expecting. - ReaderMeter

Done the survey. I answered both sets of questions because I have done some edits but not a whole lot. - Cameron Neylon

Thanks to all those who filled it in so far. We have made some adjustments. Further beta testers welcome. - Daniel Mietchen

Done :) - science3point0

Done - Pierre Lindenbaum

The survey is live now at http://survey.nitens.org/... . Thanks for filling it in or spreading the word. - Daniel Mietchen

I heard the #1 yesterday in a conf call: "what is a wiki?" - Egon Willighagen

Can Mendeley not include the "Wikipedia edit count" in their user profiles? That is easily done and would certainly disarm some'motivational aspects'. - joergkurtwegner

Not as easily done as you think, Joerg. What would count as an edit? Do you subtract from the count if your edit gets reverted? How often do you check? Do big edits count for more than small edits? - Mr. Gunn

We fixed a design flaw in the survey, now the "individual motivation" section should be unambiguous. - ReaderMeter