Opinion
Strickland incident
Much has been said about the events surrounding Donna Strickland's Nobel Prize and the Wikipedia article about her that was declined before she won it. Little attention has been paid to the perspective of the reviewer who declined it, though. What follows is a review of the Strickland incident, and what can be learned from it, by the reviewer himself.
On May 23, 2018, I (Bradv) declined a draft article about Donna Strickland. The draft had been created by Campbpt0 two months earlier, on March 28, 2018, and no other editors had contributed to it in the meantime. The author had made no other edits to Wikipedia either before or since.
This draft has received considerable media attention, and attracted a variety of comments from around the community about my actions, perceived problems with the Articles for Creation project, and about gender bias on Wikipedia, particularly as it pertains to women working in STEM fields.
This essay is a personal review and reflection of what happened, what might have been done differently, and what we could possibly change going forward.