Academic hub

Academic wikis are third-party>Special:MyLanguage/Project:Glossary#Third-party|third-party wikis meant to be used in an academic context with a greater emphasis on features like access control, content approval, and research analysis.

For other third-party uses of MediaWiki, please see sysadmin-hub>Special:MyLanguage/Sysadmin hub|Sysadmin hub.

Knowledge Sharing
Many academic wikis are using ext-semantic-mediawiki>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Semantic MediaWiki|Extension:Semantic MediaWiki and leveraging the semantic web to share data. The api>Special:MyLanguage/API|Mediawiki API can also be used to mine data from other sites; combined with an scheduler program like Cron this can lead to semi-automated data distribution.

Vampire Model
The vampire model consists of two rules:
 * 1) only registered users may edit
 * 2) only registered users may create accounts

This method of account-creation removes the burden of making all accounts from single user/admin, this greatly simplifies matters. Because trust of peers is relatively high in an academic setting, a single account can be made for a P.I., who then can make accounts for his/her students. Because Mediawiki logs all account activity it is (relatively) easy to track accountability for creation of spam/bot accounts.

Authentication

 * ext-ldap-authentication>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:LDAP_Authentication|Extension:LDAP Authentication
 * Leverage an existing LDAP (including Microsoft Active Directory, Kerberos) as a single sign-on
 * Alternatives:
 * ext-windows-ntlm>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Windows_NTLM_LDAP_Auto_Auth|Extension:Windows NTLM LDAP Auto Auth

Authorization

 * manual-preventing-access>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Preventing_access|Manual:Preventing_access
 * manual-block>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Block_and_unblock|Manual:Block_and_unblock
 * ext-editsubpages>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:EditSubpages|Extension:EditSubpages
 * security-issues>Special:MyLanguage/Security issues with authorization extensions|Security issues with authorization extensions

Editing

 * ext-parserfunctions>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:ParserFunctions|Extension:ParserFunctions
 * Bundled with core, required for complex templating including most WP templates.


 * ext-wikieditor>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:WikiEditor|Extension:WikiEditor
 * 2010-era wikitext editor sponsored by WikiMedia.


 * Vector
 * A Polished skin for MediaWiki that comes bundled by default. Enable ext-vector>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Vector|Extension:Vector for advanced functionality for this skin.


 * ext-cite>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Cite|Extension:Cite
 * Display citations to show where information originated. This is particularly useful when merging data from a single document on multiple wiki pages to indicate why the information is authoritative.


 * ext-tableedit>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:TableEdit|Extension:TableEdit
 * Forms-based editor for wiki-tables.

Navigation & Search

 * ext-breadcrumbs2>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:BreadCrumbs2|Extension:BreadCrumbs2
 * Navigation aid when traversing the wiki, usually used to display and highlight a category hierarchy.


 * ext-categorytree>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:CategoryTree</>|Extension:CategoryTree
 * Improve category listings with counters for contained pages of sub-categories.


 * ext-sphinxsearch>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:SphinxSearch</>|Extension:SphinxSearch
 * An alternative to the default search engine, lightweight but allowing more robust indexing of content through the third-party Sphinx engine.
 * Alternatives:
 * ext-lucene-search>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Lucene-search</>|Extension:Lucene-search -- more complicated but more robust still, used by large wikis like Wikipedia


 * Extension:Semantic MediaWiki
 * Allows you to add meta data to content in wiki articles and providing a query language for dynamically retrieving content including properties and lists of articles.
 * Alternatives:
 * ext-dynamicpagelist>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:DynamicPageList</>|Extension:DynamicPageList