Bharatpedia:Conflict of interest

From Bharatpedia, an open encyclopedia
(Redirected from BP:COI)

Conflict of interest (COI) editing involves contributing to Bharatpedia about yourself, family, friends, clients, employers, or your financial and other relationships. Any external relationship can trigger a conflict of interest. That someone has a conflict of interest is a description of a situation, not a judgement about that person's opinions, integrity, or good faith.

COI editing is strongly discouraged on Bharatpedia. It undermines public confidence and risks causing public embarrassment to the individuals and companies being promoted. Editors with a COI are sometimes unaware of whether or how much it has influenced their editing. If COI editing causes disruption, an administrator may opt to place blocks on the involved accounts.

Editors with a COI, including paid editors, are expected to disclose it whenever they seek to change an affected article's content. Anyone editing for pay must disclose who is paying them, who the client is, and any other relevant affiliation. COI editors should not edit affected articles directly but should propose changes on article talk pages instead.

When investigating COI editing, do not reveal the identity of editors against their wishes. Our policy against harassment, and in particular the prohibition against disclosing personal information, takes precedence over this guideline. To report COI editing, follow the advice at How to handle conflicts of interest, below. Editors discussing changes to this guideline should disclose whether they have been paid to edit Bharatpedia.

Our position[edit]

Purpose of Bharatpedia[edit]

As an encyclopedia, our mission is to provide the public with articles that summarize accepted knowledge, written neutrally and sourced reliably. Readers expect to find neutral articles written independently of their subject, not corporate or personal webpages, or platforms for advertising and self-promotion. Articles should contain only material that complies with our content policies and best practices, and Bharatpedians must place the interests of the encyclopedia and its readers above personal concerns.

COI editing[edit]

Editors with a COI should follow Bharatpedia policies and best practices scrupulously:

  • you should disclose your COI when involved with affected articles;
  • you are strongly discouraged from editing affected articles directly;
  • you may propose changes on talk pages;
  • you should put new articles through the Articles for Creation (AfC) process instead of creating them directly;
  • you should not act as a reviewer of affected article(s) at AfC, new pages patrol or elsewhere;
  • you should respect other editors by keeping discussions concise.

Note that no one on Bharatpedia controls articles. If Bharatpedia hosts an article about you or your organization, others may add information that would otherwise remain little known. They may also decide to delete the article or decide to keep it should you later request deletion. The media has several times drawn attention to companies that engage in COI editing on Bharatpedia, which has led to embarrassment for the organization concerned.

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An editor has a financial conflict of interest when they write about a topic with which they have a close financial relationship. This includes being an owner, employee, contractor, investor or other stakeholder.

Being paid to contribute to Bharatpedia is one form of financial COI; it places the paid editor in a conflict between their employer's goals and our goals. The kind of paid editing of most concern to the community involves using Bharatpedia for public relations and marketing purposes. Sometimes called "paid advocacy", this is problematic because it invariably reflects the interests of the client or employer.

Bharatpedia requires that all paid editing be disclosed and you must provide links on your user-page to all active accounts on external websites through which you advertise, solicit or obtain paid editing. If you receive or expect to receive compensation (money, goods or services) for your contributions to Bharatpedia, the policy on Bharatpedia is:

  • you must disclose who is paying you, on whose behalf the edits are made, and any other relevant affiliation;
  • you should make the disclosure on your user page, on affected talk pages, and whenever you discuss the topic;
  • you are strongly discouraged from editing affected articles directly;
  • you may propose changes on talk pages;
  • you should put new articles through the Articles for Creation (AfC) process instead of creating them directly;
  • you must not act as a reviewer of affected article(s) at AfC, new pages patrol or elsewhere;
  • you should respect volunteers by keeping discussions concise.

Requested edits are subject to the same standards as any other, and editors may decline to act on them. To find an article's talk page, click the "talk" button at the top of the article. If you are an administrator, you must not use administrative tools for any paid-editing activity.

How to disclose a COI[edit]

General COI[edit]

If you become involved in an article where you have any COI, you should always let other editors know about it, whenever and wherever you discuss the topic. There are three venues to do this.

1. If you want to use a template to do this, place {{connected contributor}} at the top of the affected talk page, fill it in as follows, and save:

Connected contributor template
{{Connected contributor|User1=Your username |U1-declared=yes| U1-otherlinks=(Optional) Insert relevant affiliations, disclosures, article drafts or diffs showing COI contributions.}}

Note that someone else may add this for you.

2. You can also make a statement in the edit summary of any COI contribution.

3. If you want to note the COI on your user page, you can use the {{UserboxCOI}} template:

UserboxCOI template

Edit the source of your user page and type {{UserboxCOI|1=Wikipedia article name}}, then click "save".

Also, if you propose significant or potentially controversial changes to an affected article, you can use the {{request edit}} template. Place this at the bottom of the talk page and state your suggestion beneath it (be sure to sign it with four tildes, ~~~~). If the proposal is verifiable and appropriate, it will usually be accepted. If it is declined, the editor declining the request will usually add an explanation below your entry.

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If you are being paid for your contributions to Bharatpedia, you must declare who is paying you, who the client is, and any other relevant role or relationship. You may do this on your user page, on the talk page of affected articles, or in your edit summaries. As you have a conflict of interest, you must ensure everyone with whom you interact is aware of your paid status, in all discussions on Bharatpedia pages within any namespace. If you want to use a template to disclose your COI on a talk page, place {{connected contributor (paid)}} at the top of the page, fill it in as follows, and save:

Connected contributor (paid) template
{{Connected contributor (paid)|User1=Username of the paid editor|U1-employer=Name of person/organization that is paying for the edits|U1-client= Name of client|U1-otherlinks=Insert diff to disclosure on your User page.}}

The employer is whoever is paying you to be involved in the article (such as a PR company). The client is on whose behalf the payment is made (usually the subject of the article). If the employer and client are the same entity—that is, if Acme Corporation is paying you to write about Acme Corporation—the client parameter may be left empty. See {{connected contributor (paid)}} for more information. Note that other editors may add this template for you. Paid editing without such a declaration is called undisclosed paid editing (UPE).

You are expected to maintain a clearly visible list on your user page of your paid contributions. If you advertise, solicit or obtain paid editing work via an account on any external website, you must provide links on your user-page to all such accounts.

If you propose changes to an affected article, you can use the {{request edit}} template. Post it on the talk page and make your suggestion underneath it.