Please note that when attributing openly licensed text from the British Geological Survey, that the publisher should be listed as "British Geological Survey" when using the Open License text template (see instructions below).
How to add open license text to Wikipedia
▼
Converting and adding open license text to Wikipedia
The process for adding open license text to Wikipedia can be broken down into the following steps:
Copy: Add the text from the open license source into Wikipedia.
Edit: Correct any formatting issues with the text, add headings and subheadings, change any wording not suitable for Wikipedia and add links to other articles.
Add media: Add graphics from the source if they are available by uploading them to Wikimedia Commons where the license on the graphics allows. You can also add in tables to the article, if the table is in a PDF (Tabula may be helpful for such additions).
Add attribution: Attribute the text using the 'Free-content attribution' template in the 'Sources' section, as explained below.
Cite: Add the original source of the text as a reference at the end of every paragraph or more if required. If the text has references add them as citations in the article. If you are creating a new article add additional references from other reliable sources to establish the notability of the subject.
Link: Create links to the article from other Wikipedia pages in both the main text and in the 'See also' sections, also add hatnotes where needed. Use the find link tool to identify and create links to the article. Add categories and Wikiproject templates to the talk page.
Publish: Save the changes to the existing article or publish the new article. In the edit summary include that you are using open license text and name the source (sometimes open license text can be flagged as a copyright violation, this helps avoid those issues).
There are two ways to attribute open license text in Wikipedia, either through the Visual editor or the Source editor. Text from multiple pages of the same source can be attributed at the same time using page numbers, when using text from more than one source please attribute separately.
Copy and paste the open license text into a Wikipedia article.
Create a section called Sources above the References section and click Insert on the editing toolbar and select Template.
Paste Free-content attribution into the box, click the first option and then click add template
Add the relevant information into the Title, Author, Publisher, Source, URL, License statement URL (if not stated within the document) fields and License (e.g. CC-BY-SA).
Click Publish changes and add added open license text, see the Sources section for more information to the edit summary.