The editor role.
What it involves, what we expect, and how to apply.
SikhWiki is a community encyclopedia of Sikhi. Anyone with an account can submit edits, corrections, or new articles. Editors are the smaller team that reviews these contributions before they go live and that maintains the encyclopedia's quality over time.
This page describes what the role involves, the standards we expect editors to enforce, and what we look for in applicants. If you read through and the work sounds right for you, the application is at the bottom.
01What the role involves.
Editors review every change submitted by contributors before it appears in the encyclopedia. Each contribution is evaluated against the published editorial standards — sourcing, neutrality, clarity, scholarly precision — and each decision is recorded, with reasons, on the article's talk page.
Anyone with an account can submit edits or new articles. Editors are the smaller team responsible for reviewing them and for the long-term quality of the encyclopedia.
02Editorial neutrality.
An editor's personal beliefs — sectarian, political, institutional, regional — do not decide the fate of a contribution. Edits are evaluated on the evidence and the standard, not on whether they confirm the reviewer's view.
Editors are expected to recuse themselves from articles they cannot review neutrally. Identifying your own bias is part of the role, not a failure of it.
03Standards we expect editors to enforce.
Every editor enforces the following on every review. These are the standards every contributor agrees to when submitting, and the ones editors uphold when reviewing.
- Every factual claim cites a primary source or peer-reviewed scholarship.
- Direct quotations from Guru Granth Sahib include ang and shabad reference.
- Punjabi terms appear in Gurmukhi with a transliteration and brief gloss.
- Conflicts of interest are disclosed; editors recuse where appropriate.
- All review activity is recorded on the article's talk page, in public.
04What we look for.
We do not filter applicants by credential. We do look for:
- Rigor with sources and citations.
- Patience with long discussions and slow consensus.
- Comfort being wrong in public — and willingness to fix it.
- The ability to write in a neutral, evidence-led voice.
- A few hours per week, ongoing.
05Accountability.
Editor status is granted by the existing editor team after review of an application and a sample of contributions. It can be suspended through public community review when the standards are not being met. No single person grants or revokes editor status.
All editor activity is public. Every review, every rejection, every accepted edit appears on the record under your name.
ApplyHow to apply.
Editing on SikhWiki is volunteer work. We do not pay editors and we do not expect more than a few hours a week. The application process is:
- 01Create an account and contribute as a regular member. Submit at least three accepted edits, or one new article.
- 02From your profile, submit the editor application form: a brief background, what you would like to work on, and links to your contributions.
- 03Have a short call with two existing editors. If approved, you are added to the editor team.