Wikipedia:Peer review/Margaret Sibella Brown/archive1

Margaret Sibella Brown

Brown embarked on a scientific career in the early 20th century when very few women went into science. Despite her lack of formal scientific training, she made major contributions to the field of bryology (the study of mosses). I started writing this about seven years ago at an edit-a-thon sponsored by NYBG. I think it would make a good FA, despite its short length; I'm pretty sure I've found everything there is to find about Brown in WP:RS. I think the GA review it got was a little bit of a softball, so bringing it here for a more critical look before I nominate. Thanks, RoySmith (talk) 18:00, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

DoctorWhoFan91

• "World War I when cotton": comma in between
• at major herbaria: at few/several major herbaria(depending on how many there are)
• Family and early life: "She had a twin sister, Elizabeth Purves (1866–1951), as well as three younger siblings: Annie Ethel (1869–1918), Richard Charles (1872–1951), and Lillian Seward (1878–1967).[3][4]": move this (and reword slighting to fit) to where "The eldest children were twin sisters Margaret and Elizabeth, followed by Annie, Richard, and Lilian.[3]" is, and remove the latter (and merge the left behind first sentence with para 2)
• Scientific career:"Entosthodon neoscoticus" This would be notable per NSPECIES, so probably shouldn't be a red link
• Why did she decline the PhD- there must have been a reason?
• Brown's middle name is variously spelled Sibella, Sybella, or Sebella, in different sources. Although her death certificate uses Sebella, Sibella is used in this article, as that is the spelling most commonly used in sources talking about her scientific career.[2]: This should be in a note in the lead or infobox, not at the end
• More detail would be good- you can't find more, so maybe someone else can recommend more sources to you, if any can be found

That's all from me. Mostly seems FA quality to me. Good luck when it goes to FAC. DoctorWhoFan91 (talk) 10:00, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

@DoctorWhoFan91 Thank you for the review. I've taken care of most of these. As I remember, the reason the bit about the various name spellings was not in a note is because I had given up trying to fight with VE, {{efn}}, and reference citations to make them all play nice together. I took another shot at it and think I've finally made it work. When I was doing the original research for this, the multiple spellings I kept finding, in conjunction with the fact that the family kept reusing "Margaret Sibella" in three different generations drove me nuts until I figured it out :-)

As for the PhD, unfortunately, all the source says is Never having sought a college degree, she resolutely declined Acadia's offer of an honorary PhD, accepting the MA instead. The implication is that she felt she didn't deserve it, but to say that would be WP:OR. I'd appreciate any additional suggestions you could make here.

About the redlink, I agree there should be an article, but I'm not qualified to write it, so I think leaving it as a redlink is the best I can do. RoySmith (talk) 17:59, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I have, however, stubbed out a couple of other redlinks. RoySmith (talk) 19:54, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Good work! DoctorWhoFan91 (talk) 20:03, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I did another round of searching and found some more material about Sidney Mines and her family[1] but it doesn't say anything about Margaret. I'm trying to figure out how much material from there it makes sense to add without shifting the focus of this article. RoySmith (talk) 23:30, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

@DoctorWhoFan91 I've made a few more additions, I'm going to go ahead and put this on FAC. I feel much more comfortable about it with the improvements you suggested. Thanks again. RoySmith (talk) 22:28, 27 January 2025 (UTC)