User:SamJohnston/Conflict of interest is a cause not a crime
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Conflict of interest should be cited as a cause for some other violation, not a crime in itself. |
Conflict of interest is one of Wikipedia's least understood and yet most cited behavioral guidelines. In a nutshell it strongly discourages promoting interests you are related to unless it is certain that the interests of Wikipedia remain paramount.
Conflicted editors can be an extremely valuable and largely untapped resource as they are often the most equipped and motivated to report on a given subject. Unfortunately some such editors fail to write from a neutral point of view, introduce original reasearch or unverifiable claims, link to third-party websites or breach other policies and guidelines such as those dealing with autobiographies.
- When citing conflict of interest in a discussion be sure to also cite the relevant policies and guidelines that you believe have been broken, ideally with specific breaches.
- Remember that conflict of interest is not a reason to delete an article although other problems with the article arising from a conflict of interest may be valid criteria for deletion.
- Use the {{COI}} template as a temporary cleanup template to highlight articles that may need attention, not a permanent brand for disparaging articles and their authors. Identify specific issues on the article's talk page.
Conflicted editors who do choose to contribute should declare their interests, both on their user pages and on the talk page of any article they edit, and be sure to write in a neutral tone and cite reliable, third-party published sources, and beware of unintentional bias.