Wikipedia:List of guidelines

This list of Wikipedia guidelines includes a summary of the most important guidelines that are currently in use. For a list of policies see List of policies. For a comprehensive but less detailed listing of policies and guidelines, see List of policies and guidelines. For categories of guidelines, see Category:Wikipedia guidelines and its subcategories. See Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines for a general overview of what policies and guidelines are about, how they are made, and why we have them.

Shortcuts WP:LGLWP:LGL WP:GUIDELINESWP:GUIDELINES

Because Wikipedia has a large number of guideline pages (over 200), they are subcategorized (using the {{subcat guideline}} template) according to their purpose.

• Behavioral guidelines outline ways for editors to behave and interact with each other on talk pages and elsewhere at Wikipedia.
• Content guidelines apply only to the article namespace (unless otherwise specified in the guideline), and offer advice on identifying and including encyclopedic information in articles.
• Deletion guidelines explain criteria and procedures for deleting unwanted pages.
• Editing guidelines usually provide non-content advice about categorization, navigation or other how-to-edit advice.
• Naming conventions detail the correct ways to name articles on particular topics.
• Notability guidelines outline the criteria that a subject must meet to merit a Wikipedia article.
• Style guidelines contain extensive advice on writing style, formatting, grammar, and more.

Guidelines can also be navigated via the other directory, categories, the navigation template or by a custom search box (as seen below)

Behavioral

Behavioral guidelines expand on the twelve conduct policies. Please read these first.

Assume good faith

Unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, assume that people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it.

Conflict of interest

Do not use Wikipedia to promote yourself, your website, your mixtape, or your organization.

Disruptive editing

Participants with a pattern of edits that has the effect of disrupting progress toward improving an article or the fundamental project of building an encyclopedia may be blocked or banned indefinitely.

Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point

State your point. However, do not spam Wikipedia, disingenuously nominate articles for deletion, push rules to their limits, or otherwise create work for other people just to prove your point.

Etiquette

Editors have different views, perspectives, and backgrounds, sometimes varying widely. Treating others with respect is key to collaborating effectively in building an encyclopedia.

Please do not bite the newcomers

Many new contributors lack knowledge about Wikipedia policies. Nevertheless, always understand that new contributors are prospective "members" and are therefore our most valuable resource.

Signatures

Sign all of your posts on Wikipedia talk pages by typing ~~~~ to be accountable and to help others understand the conversation, but do not sign in articles.

Talk page guidelines

Talk pages are for polite discussion serving to improve the encyclopedia, and should not be used to express personal opinions on a subject.

User pages

You can use your user page to add a little information about yourself or to help you to use Wikipedia more effectively. However, remember that Wikipedia is not a blog, webspace provider, or social networking site.

Content

Content guidelines expand on the eight content policies. Please read those first.

Autobiography

Avoid writing or editing an article about yourself, other than to correct unambiguous errors of fact.

Citing sources and Scientific citation guidelines

For writing and formatting references using different citation styles.

Content forks

A content fork is a piece of content (such as an inter-wiki object, a page, or a page section) that has the same scope as another piece of content that predated it, essentially covering the same topic. There are acceptable and unacceptable content forks. This guideline explains them all.

External links

External links should be kept minimal, meritable, and directly relevant to the article. Wikipedia is not an advertising opportunity.

Fringe theories

Care must be taken when writing content about fringe theories. Fringe theories should be covered only where their influence has been recognized by independent reliable sources; otherwise, they should be removed.

LLM-assisted translation

Translated text created with AI tools may not be placed in articles unless it has been reviewed by a human skilled in both the origin and target languages.

No disclaimers in articles

Wikipedia contains spoilers, potentially objectionable material, and more. There is generally no need to warn readers of this.

Non-free content and Non-free use rationale guideline

Non-free content—including all copyrighted content—can only be used in specific cases, and must be employed judiciously. Its usage must be considered fair use under US copyright law, and comply with the non-free content criteria policy.

Plagiarism

Duplicating the work of others without proper attribution is unethical and can bring the project into disrepute. Give credit where it's due.

Reliable sources and Reliable sources for medicine

Information about identifying and using appropriate sources to comply with Wikipedia's Verifiability policy.

Spoiler

It is not acceptable to delete information on the basis that it might "spoil" a reader's experience of a narrative work.

Writing articles with large language models

The use of LLMs to generate or rewrite article content is prohibited, except for copyediting and translation.

Deletion

Deletion guidelines expand on the eight deletion policies. Please read these first.

Deletion guidelines for administrators

Administrators should mostly use the Wikipedia:Proposed deletion, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion, and Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion pages when they think a page should be deleted. There are a few limited exceptions, which are given at Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion.

Presumptive removal of AI-generated content

Special deletion process for articles created by editors who have been established to have used AI in their editing.

Deletion process

An overview of the processes by which articles get deleted.

Speedy keep

Closing debates at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion, and related pages, with a result of "speedy keep".

Speedy redirect

Closing debates at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion, and related pages, with a result of "speedy redirect".

Editing

Article size

Discusses the optimal size for articles.

Be bold

Wikis develop faster when people fix problems, correct grammar, add facts, make sure the language is precise, and so on. We expect everyone to be bold. It is okay.

Disambiguation

Resolving the conflicts that arise when a single term is ambiguous—when it refers to more than one topic covered by Wikipedia.

Understandability

Strive to make each part of every article as understandable as possible to the widest audience of readers.

Categories, lists, and navigation templates

This guideline helps editors choose appropriate grouping techniques.

Categorization guidelines

Categorization. Categorization of people including by year or by ethnicity, gender, religion and sexuality. Redirect categories. User categories.

Overcategorization

Overcategorization makes categories more crowded and less useful.

Reviewing good articles

Provides advice on how to fairly review good articles.

Subpages

Creation of subpages in main namespace is not allowed. Subpages may be created in other namespaces using the slash (/) character.

Naming conventions

Category names

Category names should be specific, neutral, inclusive, and follow certain conventions.

File names

Image files, and other files, should have readable file names.

Notability

Notability

Only subjects that have received significant outside attention warrant being included on Wikipedia.

Other notability guidelines

Academics. Astronomical objects. Books. Events. Films. Geographic features. Music. Numbers. Organizations and companies. People. Sports. Video games. Web.

Style

Manual of Style

This is the most important style guideline, and the "parent" of all the other style guidelines. It provides guidance on matters such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and formatting.

Dates and numbers

Consistent standards in the use and formatting of dates and numbers make articles easier to read, write, and edit.

Layout

Common principles guide formatting of large-scale article components in most cases. Complicated articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure.

Lead section

The lead should define the topic and summarize the body of the article with appropriate weight.

Linking

Provide links that aid navigation and understanding, but avoid cluttering the page with obvious, redundant and useless links.

Words to watch

Be cautious with expressions that may introduce bias or can be interpreted in more than one way. Use clear, direct language.

Accessibility

Make Wikipedia pages easy to navigate and read for those with accessibility limitations.

Other guideline categories

• Wikipedia template guidelines: guidelines concerning templates.
• Wikipedia project content guidelines.

Recent changes

• All recent changes to guideline pages.

See also

• List of policies and guidelines – a list of the principal policies and guidelines.
• List of policies – a comprehensive descriptive directory of policies.
• Manual of Style contents – a comprehensive descriptive directory of the pages which make up the Manual of Style.
• Community standards and advice – a quick directory of community norms and related guidance essays.
• Advice pages – WikiProject Council Guide about advice pages.

Tutorials

• Introduction to policies and guidelines – a quick introduction to the major policies and guidelines for very new users.
• Keep in mind – a quick introduction on how to apply policies and guidelines as you go about editing.

Related essays

• Simplified rule-set – some basic aspect of Wikipedia norms and practices.
  • Eight rules for editing  – if you start out by following these simple rules, the rest should come naturally.
  • Ten rules for editing  – Wikipedia can be daunting, but here we provide tips to make editing smoother.
  • Trifecta – ultra fast overview of foundational principles related to policies and guidelines.
• Avoiding common mistakes – tips on avoiding the most common faux pas.
• The rules are principles – policies and guidelines exist as rough approximations of their underlying principles.