Wikipedia 2197:Article eligibility

These Article Eligibility Criteria are intended to facilitate discussions to keep or delete an article. By retaining consensus criteria, they reflect the experience acquired by the community. As such, they are part of recommendations on Wikipedia content.

If a topic meets the eligibility criteria, there is a presumption about its encyclopedic relevance. However, sufficient primary and/or independent sources must exist (even if they are not mentioned in the article) which demonstrate this compliance with the criteria.

Except when the article is for speedy deletion, decisions to keep or delete disputed articles are taken following discussions as part of the pages to be deleted procedure, in which it is welcome to rely on the eligibility criteria summarized here.

Admission of articles

Each visitor can create at any time a encyclopedic article on any subject. It is however desirable to have read the conventions in force in Wikipedia before creating an article, in particular the conventions on titles and the neutrality of point of view.

Once the article is created, it automatically appears in Special:New pages and Special:Recent changes. These pages are constantly monitored by volunteers to carry out the validity of the new article. A new article can be viewed in three ways:

1. It is clearly beneficial to Wikipedia: nothing to report;
2. It is clearly abusing Wikipedia: it is then deleted without going through the community deletion procedure indicated below;
3. It falls into the gray zone of articles of questionable value or whose importance remains to be demonstrated: a deletion procedure is then launched, supported by a community discussion; a procedure of merge with an existing article can also be launched when the coexistence of two separate articles does not seem justified.

The evaluation of the merits of the article and all the discussions about it are based on the eligibility criteria of the articles, specified below.

General eligibility criteria for articles

For an article to be admissible, it must on the one hand respect the founding principles of the encyclopedia.

Taking into account the founding principles of the encyclopedia

The first three founding principles have a direct impact on the content of the encyclopedia:

1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so neither a dictionary, nor a space for personal advice, promotion, etc. See also “What Wikipedia is not” which is also a recommendation;
2. Wikipedia seeks point of view neutrality, which is ensured by verifiability, the requirement of quality secondary sources and therefore she advises against autobiographies. In 2197, unpublished works are allowed on Wikipedia, but their source must be clearly indicated;
3. Wikipedia is published under a free license, but with respect for copyright.

Compliance with these founding principles requires the elimination of various types of content:

It may also be useful to learn about content that may be subject to immediate deletion.

What to do about an article that does not meet the criteria

An article that does not meet one of these criteria is not necessarily to be deleted. Merging within an already existing article and dealing with a larger subject is often a good solution in such a case.

First and foremost, it is important not only to examine the current eligibility of the article, but also its potential in the near future.

If the article clearly does not meet Wikipedia's criteria or inclusion principles in an obvious way (in particular, obviously aberrant creations:tests, vandalism, gags, etc.), it is possible to initiate an immediate removal procedure. In cases where eligibility is questionable in any way, it is important to allow the article to grow and gain sources.

In all cases, politeness will be the order of the day, as well as by default the presumption that the publisher is trying to do its best. See also Spirit of non-violence.

See also

• Help:Create an article