Coastal Wiki Quality Assurance

Provisions for quality assurance

The quality of the information in the Coastal Wiki is secured in two ways:

1. Editing authorisation: Authorisation is required to introduce or edit articles in the Coastal Wiki. The Coastal Wiki Moderator can grant editing authorisation to coastal and marine professionals with a background in science, management or policy. Articles are published under the author’s name. The author’s references are recorded in the Coastal Wiki Contact Database, which can be viewed by any reader.

1. Article review: The content of the Coastal Wiki is supervised by the Coastal Wiki Editorial Board (CWEB). CWEB members review articles related to their fields of expertise. Authors are invited to revise their articles in response to the review. Article reviews may also make use of AI tools.

Review process

Authors can submit draft articles to the CWEB via [info@coastalwiki.org](mailto:info@coastalwiki.org).

Submitted articles are reviewed by one or more CWEB members with relevant expertise. The review is based on the criteria listed below and may include suggestions for correction, clarification, updating, restructuring or additional references. AI-assisted comments are assessed by the human reviewer before being communicated to the author. Authors are invited to revise the article accordingly. Where substantial changes are made, the revised article may be checked again by the CWEB before the review is considered completed.

The review process is steered by the Coastal Wiki Moderator, Job Dronkers. The moderator decides whether an article is ready for publication. The review status and, where relevant, the date of the latest review or update are recorded on the Discussion page of the article.

The Coastal Wiki Editorial Board replaces the review procedure established during the ENCORA project. Other EU projects have also contributed articles to the Coastal Wiki, mostly through other portals. Articles submitted through these projects were reviewed according to the procedures of the relevant projects.

Review criteria

The review considers the following questions:

• Is the content correct from a technical and scientific point of view?
• Is the content up to date?
• Is the article suitable for the general Coastal Wiki readership? If a specific readership is targeted, this should be indicated at the beginning of the article.
• Is the article informative? Factual information, for example in tabular form, can have high added value.
• Are technical terms adequately explained, for example by links to definitions in the glossary?
• Are major facts supported by references?
• Is important relevant information about the topic missing?
• Is the article adequately linked to related articles in the Coastal Wiki?
• Are adequate suggestions for further reading provided?
• Is the English language correct?
• Is the article well structured and are the major messages clearly recognizable?
• Is the article easy to read and adequately illustrated?

Coastal Wiki Editorial Board

The membership of the CWEB is indicated in a separate article. Coastal and marine experts willing to join the CWEB are cordially invited to express their interest by sending an email to [info@coastalwiki.org](mailto:info@coastalwiki.org).