Commons:Wiki Science Competition 2023

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Wiki Science Competition is an international scientific photo competition

organized by the global Wikimedia community with the support of the Wikimedia Estonia and Wikimedia Switzerland.

It is an evolution of the previous European competition

Upload period: November – December 2023

Check the main website or the page of your specific country for more information

National competitions[edit]

All of the upload forms can be accessed from here. An international category is also provided for countries without a specific category, transnational institutions or for files uploaded after local deadlines.

Some countries have specific national juries. Click on your country in the list for more information in your main language.

People from other countries can use the international upload form – Campaign:wsc-int.

History[edit]

This competition originally started as a national competition and it was first organized in Estonia. In 2015, the contest was expanded to all of Europe and resulted in almost 10,000 freely licensed images attracting over 2,200 contesters. The 2017 edition was the first international one and saw an upload of more than 12000 files.

This year the event is organized globally for the 4th time.

How to participate[edit]

Create your account[edit]

If you don't have one yet, you can create a global account that will give you a specific username on all Wikimedia platforms (including Wikimedia Commons) when you log in.

Create your account here!


Please notice that as a newly registered user you need to wait at least four days before uploading a video file, while images can be uploaded right after the registration.

Check the rules[edit]

The main rules are listed on the Competition website. Here we provide a brief summary.



Check the national upload calendar for when the upload dates are for your region. Most countries' competitions (that is, with local prizes) run during November or December.

There is no limit to the number of files one can upload. If you upload more than one file, only one highest prize is eligible. The rest shall be awarded to the next highest scoring entrant.

The image must be published under a free use license or as public domain. The possible licenses are CC-BY-SA 4.0, CC-BY 4.0, CC0 1.0, and similar.

Images entered into the competition must be taken or authored by submitter of the image using e-mail registered Wikimedia account. In case of multiple authors, all the co-authors’ names must be provided. In case of institutional uploads, submission can be made by a representative of the organization.

The image needs to have a good scientific description. Description in English is required for every submitted image, although descriptions in other languages are also welcomed.

Upload the highest resolution possible. The image size should be at least 2 megapixels, unless the technology used does not allow it. The image must not contain water marks, logos, additional text, graphics (except scales), or insets.

Categories[edit]

In the national and international competition there are seven distinct categories: people in science, microscopy images, non-photographic media, image sets, nature, space and astronomy and a general category.

We provide some examples from all around the world.

People in Science[edit]

Scientists in their natural habitat.

Microscopy images[edit]

Optical, electron, and scanning probe microscopy images all fall under this category.

Non-photographic media[edit]

Audio and video files, computer-generated imagery.

Image sets[edit]

Thematically linked images, that can be viewed as one set. Image set could be made up from up to 10 separate images. In the last case, images titles must be similar to each other (they could be named using a progressive pattern such as “Name 1.jpg”, “Name 2.jpg” etc).

Wildlife & nature[edit]

Organisms who grow or live wild in an area. Macro photography also falls under this category. Some pictures in cages if scientifically relevant might be accepted.

Space and astronomy[edit]

It's the most recent category created starting from the 2021 edition (previously such files were put under "general")

General category[edit]

Everything else goes into this category, from archaeology to thermodynamics and from medicine to vulcanology.

Special categories[edit]

Over the years, additional categories have been suggested by international sponsors. This is an additional assessment, so uploaded files must be placed in the usual competition categories; the organisers and judges will then sort them into these categories, if confirmed.

Marine Sciences[edit]

A special prize for images dedicated to scientific knowledge of the oceans. This 'Marine Science' category, promoted and supported by the BlueNIGHTs project, is added for the first time this year to the other seven standard categories common to all national Wiki Science Competitions.

Uploaded files[edit]

Do you need some idea? Do you want see how it's going? You can take a closer look to all files sorted by theme or country, in this category or this category (2023).

For a quick glance, an informal selection of every week of the 2023 edition is given here.

2023-05 [edit]

2023-11-01[edit]

2023-11-08[edit]

2023-11-15[edit]

2023-11-22[edit]

2023-11-29[edit]

2023-12-06[edit]

2023-12-13[edit]

2023-12-20[edit]

2023-12-27[edit]

Sitenotices[edit]

Central notices can be suggested at this page.

Social networks[edit]

Hashtags: #WikiScience #WikiScienceCompetition #WSC2023 #WikiScienceCompetition2023

Science&Wiki
Science&Wiki
Science&Wiki
Wiki Science Competition
Science&Wiki

Press and blogs[edit]

A list of news published on line, ordered by date, in various languages is provided at this page.

International Jury[edit]

It is listed on the website.