Wikipedia:Training/For students/General notability guideline

  Wikipedia Training  
  The Core  
          Menu     Resources     Page 11 of 14


Beyond the Five Pillars…

Notability

The basic requirement for a topic to have its own article is: significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

  • significant coverage means that sources address the subject directly in detail, so no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than a trivial mention but it need not be the main topic of the source material.
  • reliable sources, for the sake of establishing notability, generally means at least two independent secondary sources from reputable publishers. (These need not necessarily be in English or available online.) Multiple sources from the same author or organization are considered a single source for establishing notability.
  • independent of the subject excludes works produced by those affiliated with the subject or its creator. For example, self-publicity, advertising, self-published material by the subject, the subject's website, autobiographies, and press releases are not considered independent.

Verifiable information on topics that do not meet the notability guideline may still be included within articles on broader topics.

previous page               next page