User:Farang Rak Tham/How to create a good article on a Buddhist topic

Define your topic

When writing for an online encyclopedia, you need to use secondary reliable sources, which are mostly books and articles from scholars and reports from news outlets. If you think that you are not going to agree with such sources on a particular topic, don't pursue it. You can't avoid reliable sources, and you can't cherry-pick sources either.
Please note that, while searching for sources, the subject may be spelled differently by scholars, e.g. Mahākāśyapa (Sanskrit) and Mahākassapa (Pāli) are both used.

Read tertiary and general sources first

Tertiary sources like encyclopedias and study books can also be used on Wikipedia, but are considered less valuable than secondary sources. However, it is sometimes good to start with tertiary sources, in order to establish what subject matter or scholarly opinions should be covered and to what extent. These sources often have useful information about Buddhist topics, many of which can easily be found and downloaded.

Websites

Some websites list entries in many different reference works. You might call these "quaternary sources", as they list tertiary sources:

Encyclopedia.com
Oxford Index, very similar to Oxford Reference

Online encyclopedias:

Books

Baroni, Helen J. (2002), The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism, Rosen Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8239-2240-6
Buswell, Robert E., ed. (2004), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Macmillan Reference USA, Thomson Gale, ISBN 978-0-02-865720-2 (2 volumes)
Buswell, Robert E. Jr.; Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (2013), Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3
Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, Greenberg
Gwynne, Paul (2017), World Religions in Practice: A Comparative Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-118-97227-4
Harvey, Peter (2013), An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History And Practices (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-85942-4
Hastings, James; Selbie, John Alexander; Gray, Louis H., eds. (1912), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 5, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark (very old, should only be used for uncontroversial scholarship that hasn't been changing the last 100 years. Still, very useful and many high-profile contributors; 13 volumes)
Irons, Edward (2008), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Facts on File, ISBN 978-0-8160-5459-6
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, Michael Jerryson, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Margo Kitts, ISBN 9780199759996
Jestice, Phyllis G., ed. (2004). Holy People of the World: A Cross-cultural Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-649-3.

Johnston, William M., ed. (2013). Encyclopedia of Monasticism. Routledge. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-136-78716-4.
Jones, Lindsay, ed. (2005). Thomson Gale Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). Macmillan. (14 volumes)
Keown, Damien (2000), Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press
Keown, Damien (2003), A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-157917-2
Leaman, Oliver (2000), Eastern Philosophy: Key Readings, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-17357-5
Malalasekera, G.P. (1960), Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, vol. 1, Pali Text Society, OCLC 793535195
Malalasekera, G. P.; Weeraratne, W. G., eds. (1965). Encyclopaedia of Buddhism. Government of Sri Lanka. OCLC 2863845613. (8 volumes)
Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin, eds. (2010). Religions of The World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs And Practices. Vol. 6-volume Set (2nd ed.). ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-1-59884-203-6. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink1= ignored (|editor-link1= suggested) (help)
Powers, John (2013). A Concise Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-78074-476-6.
Riggs, Thomas, ed. (2006). Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices. Thomson Gale. ISBN 0-7876-6612-2. (3 volumes)
Robinson, Richard H.; Johnson, Willard L. (1997). The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction (4th ed.). Cengage.
Strong, J.S. (2001), The Buddha: A Beginner's Guide, Oneworld Publications, ISBN 978-1-78074-054-6
Strong, J.S. (2015), Buddhisms: An Introduction, Oneworld Publications, ISBN 978-1-78074-506-0

Classics, sources with a wide scope

There are also general scholarly books on Buddhism, which do contain novel insights and original research and are therefore not tertiary. But they cover so many subjects, that they often contain information on any given Buddhist topic:

Buddhism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, Berkwitz
Carr, Brian; Mahalingam, Indira, eds. (1997). Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-01350-2.
Bunnag, J. (2007). Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand.
Collins, S. (1990). Selfless persons: Imagery and thought in Theravada Buddhism. Cambridge University Press.
Collins, Steven (1998), Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-57054-1
The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics, Cozort & Shields
Dutt, S. (2013), Early Buddhist Monachism: 600 BC-100 BC, Routledge
Eliade, Mircea (1982), Histoire des croyances et des idees religieuses. Vol. 2: De Gautama Bouddha au triomphe du christianisme [A history of religious ideas: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity] (in French), University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-20403-0
Emmanuel, Steven M., ed. (2013). A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-470-65877-2.
Gombrich, Richard F. (1995), Buddhist Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon, Kegan Paul, Trench and Company, ISBN 978-0-7103-0444-5
Gombrich, Richard (2006) [1996], How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings (PDF) (2nd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-37123-6 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |lay-date= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |lay-source= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |lay-url= ignored (help)
Gombrich, Richard (2006), Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (2nd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-01603-9
Gombrich, Richard F. (2009), What the Buddha thought, London [u.a.]: Equinox Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84553-612-1
Hirakawa, Akira (1990), A History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 0-8248-1203-4
Jayatilleke, K.N. (1963), Early Buddhist theory of knowledge, George Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-1-134-54287-1
Lamotte, Etienne (1988) [1958], Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, des origines a l'ere Saka [History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Śaka Era] (in French), Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste, ISBN 90-683-1-100-X
Norman, K. R. (1983), Pāli Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of all the Hīnayāna Schools of Buddhism (PDF), Harrassowitz, p. 8, ISBN 3-447-02285-X
Schopen, G. (1997), Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-1870-8
Schopen, G. (2004), Buddhist Monks and Business Matters: Still More Papers on Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-2774-8
Schumann, H.W. (1982), Der Historische Buddha [The Historical Buddha: The Times, Life, and Teachings of the Founder of Buddhism] (in German), translated by Walshe, M. O' C., Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1817-0
Thomas, E.J. (1931), The Life of Buddha as Legend and History (PDF) (2nd ed.), Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, OCLC 1893707
Thomas, E.J. (1951), The History of Buddhist Thought (PDF) (2nd ed.), Routledge and Kegan Paul, OCLC 49690643

Wells, Kenneth E. (1939), Thai Buddhism: Its Rites and Activities, Bangkok Times Press, OCLC 1004812732
Williams, Paul, ed. (2005). Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-33229-X. (8 volumes)
Wijayaratna, Mohan (1990), Buddhist Monastic Life: According to the Texts of the Theravāda Tradition (PDF), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-36428-0, archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2018, retrieved 17 September 2018

Search for secondary sources

Google Scholar

Search for keywords on Google Scholar
Download the sources from the links there. If there is no clickable link, search on Google Books for books, or on sites that allow you to download books like B-ok, Library Genesis or Edpf.pub. A Google Book that mentions your subject more than four times is bound to have something interesting to say about it. As Google Books have limited page views, you should try to avoid skimming through pages continuously, but rather skip to the pages you need using the search function.
For articles, search for the doi number and download using that number, from Scihub or Library Genesis. Please note that most of these are not endorsed by Wikipedia due to copyright violations, and they are blocked in some countries. Please note that Google Scholar sometimes gives multiple websites that host the article (e.g. "all three versions"), and some may provide a download whereas others do not. Also, Google Scholars doesn't always link to Open Source journals, and you might have to find the journal's website and download from there. Some Asian journals put their entire volumes on Google Books, and old journals can sometimes be found on archive.org. Lastly, register for free academic services like Academia and JSTOR to download articles easily from those sites.
Avoid primary sources like Dharma books which are aimed at edification. These are great books in themselves, but they are not suitable for an encyclopedia, because an encyclopedia is supposed to present fact and notable opinion, not edify people in the eightfold path or something like that. Whether people will be inspired by a good Wikipedia article about Buddhism to practice the eightfold path is, of course, another matter. And also, avoid Master theses as these are hardly ever allowed on Wikipedia. PhD theses are mostly allowed, though.
Save the sources per year of publication, which will help later, when starting to write. Save PhD theses separately, and foreign-language sources as well. These we use after we run through our English sources.
List sources that you cannot access, so you can later choose the most cited ones and ask for them from other editors at WP:RX.
Continue until the sources found on Google Scholar are no longer relevant. Depending on the subject, this may be 5–50 pages of sources.

Other

Then continue to do separate keyword searches on the aforementioned B-ok, which supports searching inside books. Books and articles can also be searched on the websites Diva Portal, www.encyclopedias.biz, the National Taiwan University Library, Research Gate, Kham Koo, Frogbear, A Handful of Leaves, Academia, Repository of the Cambridge University and Citeseerx. Please note you need to use Google Search with the site parameter (site:example.com "example keyword") to search inside these latter sites for e-books and articles. Though some of these sites have internal search engines, they are no match for Google Search, and some like Academia are intentionally limited.
For French-language articles on Buddhism, see Persée. For old articles (until the 1930s) in German, see Journals of the German Oriental Society at the library of Sachsen-Anhalt. Both have excellent internal search engines.
Google Scholar and most of the mentioned websites are not very good at finding chapters in books. These do, however, register well on Hollis, the library database of Harvard. It has a very good internal search engine, with even more detail than Google Scholar.
PhD theses can be found on several websites: British, American, and French-language. Some are free, some require a fee.

Mine your sources and write well

For how to mine your sources most effectively, see WP:SOURCEMINE.
After we have acquainted ourselves with our sources, we may come across other sources cited therein, that we had not found yet. These may be foreign-language sources, open source articles, chapters in conference reports, etc. We can then attempt to find those sources, and continue with those. Using sources cited in sources is also known as citation chaining.