This is the first task for T300207, What's in a name? Automatically identifying first and last author names for Wikicite and Wikidata. The aim is to get you familiar with Wikidata, and the items it has for citations.
0. Have a read about what Wikidata is and how it works, starting from https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Introduction
- You should register a Wikimedia account if you don't already have one. You can do so at https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount
- Start a page like https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel/Outreachy_1 (change 'Mike_Peel' to your username).
- Find a Wikidata item for a scientific article on a topic you are interested in. For example, if you search for 'South Pole Telescope' then you'll see various 'scientific article' items. The topic can be anything you want, as long as it has scientific articles associated with it - astronomy, biology, physics, chemistry, ... Find a few of those types of items within the topic (say, 6-12) - as varied as you can. Start listing these in your page (using the 'Q' template that makes a nice link to the item), e.g.:
* {{Q|Q56943026}}- Have a look at how the authors are stored in the item. Describe the different ways you see them recorded, how author names are ordered, and how extra information is stored about them, on your Wikidata page. Do this for at least 5 authors per paper (unless they have fewer than 5 authors!). E.g.:
* {{Q|Q56943026}}
** The first author is 'K. Story', and is defined as a string- You'll see some of the authors have links to Wikidata items about themselves. Click on those links, and explore how the author information is described (using the 'P' template that links to properties). Do this for at least 5 different authors. E.g.:
* {{Q|Q54237735}} has {{P|P735}}=Daniel- Now you've seen some examples of how name values are stored, identify ones that can be improved, and improve them (go ahead and make an edit to the item!) At the bottom of the page, click on 'Add statements', and you can input a property (by P-number or text), and a value (by Q-number or text). If you can't see the link, or it doesn't work, check the top-right of the page to see if it has a padlock - this means that the item is protected and you will need to make edits to other items instead (you will be able to come back to this item once your account is auto-confirmed, so you can note down the item anyway to come back to it!) Then describe the changes you've made on your page (link to the item, say what you've changed).
Bonus: Describe briefly how properties and values work on Wikidata. You will see that some properties have qualifier values, also document those and understand how they work.
Once you are happy, send me a link to your page (by email, on my talk page, or replying to this ticket as you prefer). Make sure to also register it as a contribution on the Outreachy website ( https://www.outreachy.org/outreachy-may-2022-internship-round/communities/wikimedia/whats-in-a-name-automatically-identifying-first-an/contributions/ )! I'll send you a reply to say whether it is accepted or not on the talk page for the contribution.