Wikidata:GEPRIS Historisch (DFG)

Deutscher Text unter: Wikidata:GEPRIS Historisch (DFG)/de

Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in the laboratory, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie, can be found on GEPRIS Historisch

To mark the centenary of the founding of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, the predecessor organization of the German Research Foundation, the funding organization launched a new portal GEPRIS Historisch in December 2020. The information system makes nearly 50,000 funding proposals from 1920 to 1945 searchable, including the individuals and institutions from which these proposals originated (Cf. GEPRIS (Q48879895), which lists currently funded as well as completed DFG projects). The foundation of the data results from a seven-year research project on the DFG history (cf. GEPRIS project entry).

A core feature of GEPRIS Historical are the links to other knowledge databases with access to established identifiers such as GND and Wikidata-ID. Users of the portal thus gain access to personal profiles in the Gemeinsame Normdatei of the German National Library and in the Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). In addition to biographical profiles, texts on the historical sites of activity and their successor institutions recorded in the system are linked in "Wikiworld", as are selected projects (e.g. famous expeditions). When avaiable, GEPRIS Historisch links also to digitized full texts in Wikisource for periodicals funded by the DFG. By linking to Wikidata and NDB, users of the system have access to more than 200 additional sources. Thanks to a so-called data donation (Wikidata) or access to a beacon file (for GND based data collections), GEPRIS Historical is conversely also listed as a source in these systems and is thus part of a worldwide information network on historical research personalities.

Preparation of the Data Donation

• In a first discussion of the DFG team with Jens Ohlig (WMDE) and elya at the beginning of February 2020, the rough parameters of the project were outlined
• Approximately 13,000 personal records have been processed by the DFG and compared with GND and Wikidata. Of these, 55 percent have a GND as well as a Wikidata ID, 14 percent only a GND and 1 percent only a Wikidata ID.
• The approximately 5,700 records without a Wikidata ID will be made available by the DFG for import into Wikidata if enough contextual information such as first name, short text, and birth and death dates is available.
• A challenge was the comparison with institutions, especially when they changed their institutional affiliation in the course of time - for example, in the form of institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (cf. Kaiser Wilhelm Society (Q708038)), which after the war were largely transferred to the Max Planck Society (cf. Max Planck Society (Q158085)). In fact, however, Wikidata entries could be assigned to a third of the approximately 2.800 research institutions recorded in GEPRIS Historisch.
• The DFG uses also images available on Commons for its portal, and has also discovered a three-digit number of images on Commons which are not yet linked as image (P18) in Wikidata.
• Online coordination with DFG, Wikimedia Deutschland and User:Elya
• Launch of the portal in December 2020: gepris-historisch.dfg.de/

Current status

• New property (external identifier) for the GEPRIS Historisch database  Done see Wikidata:Property proposal/GEPRIS-Historisch ID (Person) resp. GEPRIS Historisch person ID (P9044)
• Reconciliation and import of donated data, part 1: add new identifier to existing items (7575 items)  Done
• Reconciliation and import of donated data, part 2: new creation of 3.255 (from which 1.827 had a GND) persons  Done

Chances

• By using Wikidata combined with data from the DFG, whose members are the most important universities, academies of science and research institutions in Germany, Wikidata will gain enormous recognition and visibility in the scientific community
• The project might be extended to the time after 1945
• There seem to be photos of people in some institutions, which could possibly be "liberated" or may already are under a free licencse
• …

SPARQL Abfragen

Lists of applicants

• List of applicants
• Applicants by birthyear
• Map with applicants by place of birth

Images

• Images of applicants

Awards

• List of applicants by "(scientific) award"
• Ranking of applicants by number of "(scientific) award"
• Frequency of "(scientific) awards
• All types of awards

Relations

• List of living descendents
• Master-apprentice relations

Further reading

• Slides of Jürgen Güdler at Pidapalooza 2020 in Lissabon about the project Gepris Historisch
• Short video about the background of the project at DFG bewegt
• Is It Really Him/Her?: Challenges and Solutions in the Unambiguous Identification of Historical Researchers