Frequently Asked Questions
This page shows some of the queries that we get often, with some links to some of the answers you may find useful. If the question you want to ask is not listed here, please do email the WikiVet team and we will do our best to find an answer for you. You can also let us know if you think a question not mentioned here should be included.
What is WikiVet?
WikiVet is a collaborative initiative that aims to provide a complete undergraduate veterinary curriculum online. It's a wiki, which means that it can be edited by anyone who's registered with the site; this is why we restrict membership to those related to the veterinary profession. You can read more about WikiVet in the WikiVet Introduction, which will hopefully give you more of an insight into what we are. You can also look at our mission statement and guiding principles.
Who's involved in WikiVet?
We have a small core team of Veterinary graduates who work full-time on the project. We also have a small steering group with members from the original founding UK vetschools. You can meet the team if you want to see who's involved in managing the project. This is really just the people who are involved in publicising and managing the site though, we like to think that all of our registered users are involved in WikiVet to a greater or lesser extent! We currently have 68,284 users, who come from over 240 Vet schools in over 80 countries around the world.
How do you make money/how are you funded?
WikiVet does not make a profit. We have been very lucky to receive generous help from some of our sponsors and have also been awarded some funding for various grants. This funding has been used to pay our small team and as much as we can on creating new content.
Is there any content I can see before registering?
There is some content available for viewing by the public, here is a sample of few pages:
Articles
Learning Resources
How do I log in?
To log in you'll first need to have your account request accepted. This sometimes takes up to 48 hours, so please be patient. If your request is accepted, you'll be emailed a temporary password which you'll be able to enter in the login screen. This temporary password will only work once, you'll be prompted to create your own personal password. This short document, Logging into WikiVet provides some further instructions.
How do I register?
If you're interested in registering for WikiVet, then you'll need to go to our registration page. As a rule we only let in people who are related to the Veterinary profession, as every user is able to edit content and we'd prefer to not have material edited incorrectly. You can read the document Registering with WikiVet to find out what the process involves, and who's allowed to register if you're not sure.
I've filled in the registration, but not received a confirmation link in an email yet, where is it?
Once you have filled in the request account form on the registration page you should be sent an email with a link in it - it is essential that you click this link. This confirms to us that your email address is valid and that you're not a computer. If you haven't received your email with a link in it (usually takes a few minutes), one of two problems will have occurred. Either:
- You entered the wrong email address and the confirmation link has gone to the wrong address, or
- The email has been sent but it's gone into your junk mail folder.
It's important that you write the correct email address in to prevent situation 1, if you haven't received the email within an hour of sending the request then please check your junk mail for our email, add us to your safe senders list then click on the confirmation link.
I've clicked the confirmation link but not received my password yet, where is it?
We manually scrutinise every registration in order to ensure that we only let in approved users, so it sometimes takes up to 48 hours to get to your registration. If it's been less than 48 hours please be patient for a while longer, if it's been longer than this and you still haven't received a password then please do email us at wikimaster@wikivet.net to prod us into action!
How can I subscribe to the monthly newsletter?
You can subscribe for the newsletter by going to http://wikivet.net/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi and entering your email address and first name. Click on 'submit information' to sign up. You can see past copies in the WikiVet Newsletter Archive
I have forgotten my user name and/or password
- If you have forgotten your password, click the "Forgotten your login details" link on the log in screen, then enter your username and click on the "email me a new password" button (see Logging into WikiVet for more details).
- If you have forgotten your user name, please email the WikiVet team with as much detail as you can, your full name and email address you registered with or any other email addresses you may have used.
How do I edit content?
Once you're registered with WikiVet, it's relatively simple to edit a page if you spot a mistake. Some pages are locked for editing by general users, as they may contain important bits of code or important navigation links. For any other page, you can see and edit code for the entire page by clicking on 'edit' at the top of the page. If you just want to edit a small section, then you can click on the the 'edit' link on the right side of the page, next to the section you're wanting to edit.
It's worth looking at our helpful editing guide or our formatting cheatsheet if you're planning on doing anything complicated. We do have some guidelines for general editing also that you should try to adhere to.
How can I stay up to date with what's happening in WikiVet?
We have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WikiVet which you can 'like' to get updates sent to your facebook profile, a Twitter feed at [http:/www.twitter.com/WikiVet www.twitter.com/WikiVet] where you can follow us, we send out a monthly Newsletter which you can subscribe to at newsletter.wikivet.net and a group in NOVICE (the Network of Veterinary ICt in Education) which you can join at www.noviceproject.eu/pg/groups/23370/wikivet/.
I'm a student and I want to get more involved in WikiVet. How?
There are two main ways that students can help us currently. We want WikiVet to be used as widely as possible throughout the world so as many students as possible can have access to this great content. To do this we need to let students know that WikiVet is here, so we're on the look out for student ambassadors. These ambassadors would act as a point of contact for the WikiVet team in their school, and help us keep the student body informed and motivated. You can find out more information at the WikiVet Student Ambassadors page.
We're also looking to create school pages about your school. This will let students and graduates around the world find out more about your school, what the teaching is like and found out who they should contact. If you'd like to help us create a page about your school (after all, who knows it better than you?) then have a look at the help page. If you want to see which schools already have pages and ambassadors, take a look at the vet schools world map.
I'm a Vet or Academic and I'd like to help create content. How?
We're really keen to have as many people creating and editing content as we can, Wikipedia make it look easy because they have millions of users - we only have a few thousand so far! If you're serious about wanting to create some content, please get in touch with us by emailing us and let us know what area you'd be interested in building.
I'm a subject-matter expert and I'd like to help review content. How?
Please take a look at our reviewing help page. We do want more experts to take responsibility for certain sections of the site; rest assured you'd be fully supported and wouldn't have to know much about wiki code! All pages you review will be clearly marked with a banner to give you credit, and also reassure users that the material is up to date.