Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 19:06, 13 October 2006

The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption.

This page in a nutshell: All material in Misplaced Pages must be attributable to a reliable, published source. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be challenged or removed.

Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, not a publisher of original thought: all material published by Misplaced Pages must be attributable to a reliable published source. This means that all facts, opinions, ideas, and arguments may be included in articles only if they have already been published by a reliable source. The threshold for inclusion in Misplaced Pages is whether the material can be attributed, not whether it is true. Misplaced Pages is not the place to insert your own opinions, experiences, or arguments.

Although everything in Misplaced Pages must be attributable to a reliable source, not all material must actually be attributed. Editors should provide attribution for any material that is challenged or likely to be challenged. The burden of evidence lies with the editor wishing to add or retain material. For controversial or questionable claims, Misplaced Pages must answer the question: According to whom?

Misplaced Pages:Attribution is one of Misplaced Pages's two core content policies. The other is Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view. Jointly, these policies determine the type and quality of material that is acceptable in articles. That is, content on Misplaced Pages must be both attributable and written from a neutral point of view. Because the policies are complementary, they should not be interpreted in isolation from one another.

For examples and explanations that illustrate key aspects of this policy, see Misplaced Pages:Attribution/FAQ.

Key principles

• Misplaced Pages does not publish original research.

• Original research refers to material for which no reliable published source could be found; that is, it refers to material that is not attributable to a reliable source. It includes unpublished arguments, concepts, data, ideas, statements, theories, and neologisms.
• All claims should be manifest from the source that is cited, or easily derived from it. That is, claims made in articles must be directly supported by the cited sources. The analysis or synthesis of published materials to produce novel interpretations or to advance a position are excluded. Interpretive claims, exegesis, and the extrapolation from a specific case to present a general idea, are examples of original research and are not allowed.

• Misplaced Pages articles must be based on reliable sources.

• Reliable sources are published materials or documents whose authors are regarded as trustworthy or authoritative in relation to the subject at hand. At a minimum, sources which are unpublished, anonymous, or of dubious authenticity are unacceptable on Misplaced Pages. Beyond that, there is no firm definition; how reliable a source is depends on context. In general, the most reliable sources are books and journals published by universities; mainstream newspapers; and magazines and journals published by known publishing houses. What these have in common is process and approval between document creation and publication. As a rule of thumb, the more people engaged in checking facts; analysing legal issues; and scrutinizing the writing, the more reliable the publication. Material that is self-published is generally not regarded as reliable, because nothing stands between the creation and publication; see below for exceptions.

• Any unsourced material may be removed and in biographies of living persons such material should be removed immediately.

• Any material that is challenged or likely to be challenged needs a source, as do quotations; the burden of evidence lies with the editor wishing to retain the material. Material lacking attribution may be removed, but exercise sensible judgement. That Paris is the capital of France does not need a source. This policy should never be used to cause disruption by prematurely removing material for which reliable sources could reasonably be found. The exception to this is when dealing with claims about living persons, where unsourced contentious material must be removed immediately and should not be moved to talk pages.

• Building an encyclopedia requires the use of good editorial judgment and common sense.

• Formal rules are not a substitute for good judgment and intellectual honesty. Formal rules cannot determine whether material is notable or relevant to a particular topic. Our goal is to represent significant, published opinion fairly and without bias.

No original research

Misplaced Pages does not publish original research or original thought. This includes unpublished facts, arguments, and ideas; and any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material which serves to advance a position.

Note the difference between unsourced material and original research:

• Unsourced material is material not yet attributed to a reliable source.
• Original research is material that cannot be attributed to a reliable source.

Unpublished synthesis of published material

Material can often be put together in a way that constitutes original research even if its constituent parts have been published by reliable sources. Avoid analyzing sources in a way that produces a new idea or argument. Even if A and B are published by reliable sources, it is inappropriate to combine A and B to conclude a new position C.

What is not original research

It is legitimate to make deductions that require no additional assumption or interpetation beyond what is in text, such as simple mathematical calculations or simple logical deductions based on previously published data that do not change the significance of such data. If a published source gives the numbers of votes cast in an election, it is not original research to calculate percentages, because it is a simple calculation, from which the original data could be readily reproduced. Similarly, if a source says that someone was born in 1954 in Baltimore, Maryland, it is not original research to deduce that she was born in the United States, because it is a simple logical deduction to determine the country of birth. It is prohibited to use such data to advance a point, since it creates a point-of-view.

Problematic sources

Some sources pose special difficulties when used as references:

• A questionable source is one with no independent editorial oversight or fact-checking process, or with a poor reputation for fact-checking. This includes websites and publications that express political, religious, anti-religious, or racist views that are widely acknowledged as extremist. It also includes gossip columns and sources that are entirely promotional in nature. Questionable sources should usually not be used as sources except in articles about themselves.

• A self-published source is material that has been published by the author, or whose publisher is a vanity press, web hosting service, or other organization that provides little or no editorial oversight. The expression "self-published source" may also refer to the author of the material. Personal websites, blogs, messages on USENET and Internet message boards are considered self-published. This also usually applies to websites of organizations, political parties and enterprises. However, material published by an organization with good editorial approval processes is not considered self-published, even if the names of the authors are not given. With self-published sources, no independent entity stands between the author and publication; the material may not be subject to any form of fact-checking, legal scrutiny, or peer review. Anyone can create a website or pay to have a book published and then claim to be an expert in a certain field. For that reason, self-published material is usually not acceptable as a reliable source.

Problematic sources should be used sparingly and with caution.

There are several exceptions:

1. Problematic sources in articles about their authors.

Material from a problematic source, including a self-published source, may be used as primary source material in articles about that source's author. The material must be relevant to the person's or organization's notability; should not be contentious or unduly self-serving; and should not be used to support claims about topics not directly related to the source. Articles about such sources should not — on the grounds of needing to give examples of the source's work — repeat any potentially defamatory claims the source has made about third parties, unless the claim has also been published by reliable sources, which should be cited.

2. Expert self-published sources

When a recognised expert writing in his or her area of expertise, or a well-known professional journalist or commentator, produces self-published material, we can rely on it so long as material produced by the writer would normally be regarded as a reliable source. However, exercise caution: if the material is really worth reporting, someone else is likely to have done so. If there is reasonable doubt about the reliability of the source or the relevance of the material to the subject matter, err on the side of caution and don't use the self-published material.

Requesting sources

If an article topic has no reliable sources that can be cited, it cannot be written about in Misplaced Pages, because this is not the place to publish material for the first time.

Original research should be removed immediately, but give people a chance to provide attribution for unsourced material unless you're fairly sure none exists. If an article consists entirely of original research, consider nominating it for deletion or ask an admin if it may be speedy deleted. Unattributed material that is potentially libelous should also be removed immediately.

If you want to request a source for an unsourced statement, consider moving it to the talk page; tag the sentence by adding the {{fact}} template; or tag the whole article by adding the {{not verified}} template. You can also make the unsourced sentences invisible by adding <!-- before the section you want to comment out and --> after it, until the material is attributed.

Always leave a note on the talk page explaining what you're doing. If no source has been provided within a reasonable time — and how long that is will depend on the context — then you may remove it.

Biographies of living persons

Editors must take particular care when writing biographies of living persons, which require a degree of sensitivity because they could negatively affect someone's life and have legal consequences. Remove unattributed, controversial biographical material (negative, positive, or just questionable) immediately if it concerns a living person, and do not move it to the talk page. This applies to material in biographies of living persons and to material about living persons in other articles, talk pages, and user pages. Be careful not to err too far on the side of not upsetting other editors by leaving unsourced material in articles for too long, or at all in the case of information about living people.

External links

Articles may contain links to external sites in a section entitled "Further reading" or "External links". This is generally for external references (whether print or online) that contain material relevant to the topic but not used as a source. Material that fails to meet the standards described in this policy may be cited, but be careful: these sections are not dumping grounds for unreliable sources. See Links to be avoided.

Citing yourself

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You may cite your own publications just as you'd cite anyone else's, but make sure your material is relevant and that you're regarded as a reliable source for the purposes of Misplaced Pages. Be cautious about excessive citation of your own work, which may be seen as promotional or a conflict of interest; when in doubt, check on the talk page.

Citing sources

See Misplaced Pages:Citing sources and Misplaced Pages:Citations quick reference

At a minimum, any substantial, surprising, or controversial claim in an article should be accompanied by an inline citation, such as this (typed as <ref>An example citation</ref>). In addition, in many cases it is appropriate to include prose attributions for sources. A prose attribution is the explicit assignment of a claim to a source in the article's text, thus conveying that Misplaced Pages does not support the view but merely acknowledges that the named source has indeed made the statement.

English-language sources

English-language sources should be used whenever possible, because this is the English Misplaced Pages. Sources in other languages are acceptable when there are no English equivalents in terms of quality and relevance. Published translations are generally preferred to editors translating material on their own; when editors do use their own translations, the original-language material should be provided too, perhaps in a footnote, so that readers can check the translation for themselves.

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Template messages/Disputes
• {{Original research}} - message used to warn of original research

Notes

1. Wales, Jimmy. "Zero information is preferred to misleading or false information", WikiEN-l, May 16, 2006.
2. "Zero information is preferred to misleading or false information", WikiEN-l, May 19, 2006.
3. An example citation

Further reading

• Wales, Jimmy. Crackpot articles, July 12, 2003
• Wales, Jimmy. "Original research", December 3, 2004
• Wales, Jimmy. "Original research", December 6, 2004.
• Academic Publishing Wiki - a wiki welcoming original research
• Wikiresearch, a proposal for a wiki for original research.

• Misplaced Pages proposals