Talk:Donna Strickland/FAQ

Why didn't Wikipedia have an article on Strickland before she won a Nobel Prize?

The current version of this article was created in October 2018, shortly after Strickland won the Nobel Prize. Before that, there were two unsuccessful attempts to create an article about her. The first, in 2014, was immediately deleted because the entire text was copied from another website, infringing the original author's copyright. The second attempt, in March 2018, was via the articles for creation process, where new users submit drafts to be reviewed by another editor before it is published. Draft:Donna Strickland was submitted for review once. It was declined because the reviewer decided that the references it cited did not establish the notability of the subject. The creator of the draft did not attempt to submit it for review again and the page was not edited again until October 2018, when it was redirected to this newly-created article.

Further reading: Erhart, Ed (4 October 2018). "Why Didn't Wikipedia Have an Article on Donna Strickland, Winner of a Nobel Prize?". San Francisco: Wikimedia Foundation.

Was this article previously deleted because Wikipedia editors thought that Strickland was not notable?

No. One previous attempt to create this article, in 2014, was deleted because it was copyright infringement. In March 2018, an editor declined to publish a draft article on Strickland, but this draft was not deleted; it remained in existence until it was superseded by the current version of the article, created in October 2018. The reviewer's pro forma reason for declining included a link to our notability guidelines for biographies, but in a subsequent discussion most editors agreed that Strickland was notable before she won the Nobel Prize. The reviewer clarified that they agreed that Strickland was notable, but had declined to publish the draft because at the time it did not include any references to independent, reliable sources.

Why is the controversy over Strickland's Wikipedia article not mentioned in this article?

The subject of this article is Donna Strickland and her work, not the article itself. Although there has been a significant coverage of the fact that there was no Wikipedia article on Strickland until she won a Nobel Prize, these sources are about this article, not about Strickland. A self-reference to it here would therefore be putting undue weight on an incident which is not a significant aspect of Strickland's life or work. The incident is instead mentioned in our article about criticism of Wikipedia. Whether to include it in this article has been discussed here, here, and here, with the consensus being against inclusion for the time being. This can change, for example if the 'Wikipedia incident' becomes a significant part of Strickland's biography as recounted in reliable sources, as opposed to just a frequently-cited example of the shortcomings of Wikipedia.