MEpedia:Editorial guidelines

As a general rule the style of writing and presentations of facts should follow the style of Wikipedia. When writing or editing please consider:


 * Less is more: The less text an article contains, the easier it is to read (especially important for patients with cognitive symptoms) and the easier it is to maintain.


 * Accessibility: What is the general information you would need to know to understand this topic? (What you are likely to find on a typical Wikipedia page)


 * Specificity: What are the relevant research findings, context, detail or applications of this topic to ME and CFS? (What you are unlikely to find on Wikipedia)


 * Connection: How does the topic relate and link to other topics (and MEpedia pages)?


 * Source quality: What is the quality of the source of the information? If it is a research study, was it a randomized double-blind trial? Was there a large sample size? What research definition(s) were used? Are there other studies that conflict with the results of that study? If a piece of information is without clear scientific support, it can still be included but must be clearly contextualized within the article as theory, anecdote or observation.


 * Cite published scientific studies: Wherever possible when editing search PubMed and link to relevant published studies. For example if you were writing the page on Low dose naltrexone, you'd find the studies for fibromyalgia and Naltrexone, and can cite them on the LDN page, and take the opportunity to add a link to the study to the researcher's (Jarred Younger) page. You may also want to look for ongoing/future clinical trials - to find them, use ClinicalTrials.gov.


 * Neutrality: use a neutral, encyclopedic tone. Where a topic is controversial, present the primary viewpoint (neutral & factual), then add a separate section for 'criticisms' or 'controversy', citing evidence.  This may be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view


 * Medical hypotheses: If you want to go in-depth on a well-known hypothesis that may have only limited support in the scientific literature, consider starting a separate medical hypothesis page. For example: Methylation cycle hypothesis or Amygdala hypothesis or Mold hypothesis


 * Naming conventions: We have created separate pages for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and ME/CFS. On all other pages the name used when citing scientific research is the name(s) the authors used in their study. The diagnostic criteria used can always be determined by looking at the original article. In general, it is not necessary to explain that the Fukuda criteria were used as the most common criteria, however it may be useful to describe when a study used either the Canadian Consensus Criteria, the Oxford Criteria, or another less used criteria, particularly if it is helpful for contextualizing the results of the study, or when studies that used different criteria have conflicting results.


 * Spellings: Generally, use United States English spellings, unless the context requires otherwise.


 * Avoid copy & paste: MEpedia is bringing together the key resources related to ME/CFS, but where possible we should state facts, summarise, and cite and link to the source, rather than copy-and-paste content from other locations. Like in science and journalism, strong evidence & sources are vital, referring to the original. Copy-and-paste creates vast amounts of content that could be maliciously or accidentally edited - it is better to refer to the original.


 * If unsure, use the Discussion tab: Every article page has a tab marked "Discussion" at the top, where conversations and debates about the page can be held. If you are unsure about an edit, or how to make the change, or want views from others, just write in the Discussion tab. It is very important that when editing the Discussion tab you type four tilde characters at the end of your comment (Olliec (talk) 04:37, 5 December 2015 (PST)) which signs your comment with your name and the date.