Wikipedia:Notability (published works)

This is a page merging Notability (books), Notability (films), Notability (web content) and the relevant section of Notability (music) into a single guideline. The intention is to reduce the number of active notability guidelines and the associated bureaucracy. If accepted by the community, the existing guidelines in this area will be deprecated

This page gives some rough guidelines intended to be used by Wikipedia editors to decide if a published work should have an article on Wikipedia. A published work is any literary, artistic or intellectual production that is publicly available. The most common examples would be books, music, films and web content.

General criteria

A published work should generally be considered notable is at least one of the following criteria are met. Additional criteria exist for the inclusion of historical published works that may not have easily accessible sources, and these can be found below.

1. The published work has been the subject of multiple, non-trivial reliable sources that are independent of the published work. This definition is relatively broad, but the following types of sources are excluded for the purpose of establishing notability
   • media reprints of press-releases, advertising or any other promotional material relating to the published work
   • sources that simply regurgitate material from the published work without additional critical discussion
   • other trivial coverage such as capsule reviews, advertising, incidental mentions or content descriptions in internet directories or online stores.
2. The published work has won a major award in its field, or has received a notable award for some aspect of its production.
3. Reliable sources consider that the work has provided the basis for, or otherwise significantly influenced another notable published work, event, political or religious movement.
4. The published work is the subject of widespread use as a teaching aid in educational establishments.
5. The published work was selected for preservation in a national archive.
6. The published work was a unique accomplishment, a milestone in the development, or has contributed significantly to the development of its field.

Editors may wish to consider including material about a published work within a more general article such as that of the originator of the work if insufficient material exists to produce a substantial article irrespective of its notability, although this is advisory rather than prescriptive.

Media specific criteria

Books

Threshold standards

Books should have at a minimum an ISBN number (for books published after 1966) or GTIN number (for books published after 2005), be available at a dozen or more libraries and be cataloged by its country of origin's official or de facto national library. See List of national libraries for applicable libraries. However, these are exclusionary criteria rather than inclusionary; meeting these threshold standards does not imply that a book is notable, whereas a book which does not meet them, most likely is not.

Self-publication

In this regard, it should be especially noted that self-publication and/or publication by a vanity press indicates, but does not establish non-notability. Exceptions do exist, such as Robert Gunther's Early Science in Oxford or Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane. Note however that both of these books would be considered notable by virtue (for instance) of criterion 1.

Taking the preceding threshold section into account, it should be noted that many vanity press books are both assigned ISBN or GTIN numbers and may be listed in a national library, as well as are amenable to being found through a Google Book Search.

By the same token, it should always weigh against an article's inclusion if the author or other interested party is the creator of the Wikipedia article. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Autobiography for more information.

Non-contemporary books

From a pragmatic standpoint, the vast majority of books upon which articles are written which invite a notability judgment call and which find their way to articles for deletion, are from the modern era. Nevertheless, the notability of books written or published much earlier may occasionally be disputed and the criteria proposed above intended primarily for modern books may not be as suitable. We suggest instead a more common sense approach which considers whether the book has been widely cited or written about, whether it has been recently reprinted, the fame that the book or its author enjoyed in the past and its place in the history of literature.

Academic books

Academic books serve a very different function and come to be published through very different processes than do books intended for the general public. They are often highly specialized, have small printing runs, and may only be available in specialized libraries and bookstores. For these reasons, the bulk of standards delineated previously for mainstream books are incompatible in the academic bailiwick. Again, common sense should prevail. In that case, notability should rely on whether it is published by an academic press, how widely the book is cited by other academic publications or in the media, how influential the book is considered to be in its specialty area, or adjunct disciplines, and whether it is taught or required reading in a number of reputable educational institutions.

Films

Some films that don't pass the above tests may still be notable, and should be evaluated on their own merits. The article's ability to attest to a film's notability through verifiable sources is significant. Some inclusionary criteria to consider are:

1. The film represents a unique accomplishment in cinema, is a milestone in the development of film art, or contributes significantly to the development of a national cinema, with such verifiable claims as "The only cel-animated feature film ever made in Thailand" (See The Adventure of Sudsakorn)
2. The film features significant involvement (ie. one of the most important roles in the making of the film) by a notable person and is a major part of his/her career.
   • An article on the film should be created only if there is enough information on it that it would clutter up the biography page of that person if it was mentioned there.
3. The film was successfully distributed domestically in a country that is not a major film producing country, and was produced by that country's equivalent of a "major film studio." Articles on such a film should assert that the film in question was notable for something more than merely having been produced, and if any document can be found to support this, in any language, it should be cited.

Future films, incomplete films, and undistributed films

Further information: [[:Wikipedia:WikiProject Films/Future films]]

Films that have already begun shooting, but have not yet been publicly released (theatres or video), should not have their own articles unless the production itself is notable per the notability guidelines. Similarly, films produced in the past, which were either not completed or not distributed, should not have their own articles unless their failure was notable per the guidelines.

Music

Albums, singles and songs

All articles on albums, singles or songs must meet the basic criteria at the notability guidelines, with significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

In general, if the musician or ensemble that recorded an album is considered notable, then officially released albums may have sufficient notability to have individual articles on Wikipedia. Demos, mixtapes, bootlegs, promo-only, and unreleased albums are in general not notable; however, they may be notable if they have significant independent coverage in reliable sources. Album articles with little more than a track listing may be more appropriately merged into the artist's main article or discography article, space permitting.

Most songs do not rise to notability for an independent article and should redirect to another relevant article, such as for the songwriter, a prominent album or for the artist who prominently performed the song. Songs that have been ranked on national or significant music charts, that have won significant awards or honors or that have been performed independently by several notable artists, bands or groups are probably notable. Notability aside, a separate article on a song is only appropriate when there is enough verifiable material to warrant a reasonably detailed article; articles unlikely ever to grow beyond stubs should be merged to articles about an artist or album.

In a few special cases, an unreleased album may qualify for an advance article if there is sufficient verifiable and properly referenced information about it—for example, Guns N' Roses' 2008 album Chinese Democracy had an article as early as 2004. However, this only applies to a very small number of exceptionally high-profile projects—generally, an album should not have an independent article until its title, track listing and release date have all been publicly confirmed by the artist or their record label.

Web

Wikipedia is not a web directory, in that it is not a site that specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Wikipedia is not a mirror or a repository of links, images, or media files. Articles which merely include an external link and a brief description of its contents may be deleted. Wikipedians are averse to the use of Wikipedia for advertising, and Wikipedia articles are not advertisements is an official policy of long standing. Advertising is either cleaned up to adhere to the neutral point of view or deleted.

Keeping in mind that all articles must conform with our policy on verifiability to reliable sources, and that primary sources alone are not sufficient to establish notability; web-specific content is deemed notable based on meeting any one of the following criteria.

1. The content itself has been the subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself. This criterion includes reliable published works in all forms, such as newspaper and magazine articles, books, television documentaries, websites, and published reports by consumer watchdog organizations except for the following:
   • Media re-prints of press releases and advertising for the content or site.
   • Trivial coverage, such as (1) newspaper articles that simply report the Internet address, (2) newspaper articles that simply report the times at which such content is updated or made available, (3) a brief summary of the nature of the content or the publication of Internet addresses and site or (4) content descriptions in Internet directories or online stores.
2. The website or content has won a well-known and independent award from either a publication or organization.
3. The content is distributed via a medium which is both respected and independent of the creators, either through an online newspaper or magazine, an online publisher, or an online broadcaster; except for trivial distribution including content being hosted on sites without editorial oversight (such as YouTube, MySpace, GeoCities, Newgrounds, personal blogs, etc.).

Other considerations

Forthcoming publications

See also: Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not § Wikipedia is not a crystal ball

Works that have not yet been published are not typically notable under this guideline, although if there is sufficient interest in the work then it may be notable under the general notability guideline. Unpublished works may still be notable if they meet all of the following criteria:

• The title of the work has been specified by the publishers of the work or other creative professionals directly associated with it. If there is no title known, then this is indicative of a tentative work and may be discussed within a broader article on the originator or publisher of the work.
• Suitable evidence from a reliable source must exist to indicate that production of the work has started. In the specific instance of films, for example, this would be the commencement of principal photography.

In general, however, anticipated publications require reliable evidence of notability to satisfy the general notability guideline in order to have an article.

Self-publication

Published works must be supported by sources from someone independent of the work itself. Self-promotion and product placement are not the routes to having an encyclopedia article. Wikipedia articles are not advertisements is an official policy of long standing.

Resources

Books

• Clicking on any linked ISBN number on Wikipedia takes you to Special:Booksources where preformatted links for the specific book are provided, allowing access to multiple library catalogs, bookseller databases and other book resources.
• Library of Congress Online Catalog: A searchable database useful in identifying publisher, edition, etc.
• The British Library's online catalog.
• The Literary Encyclopedia: 3300 profiles of authors, works and literary and historical topics and references of 18,000 works.
• Norton anthology of world literature: Useful in the exploration of world literature.
• Worldcat: search for a book in library catalogues. Contains 1.8 billion items in 18,000 libraries worldwide.
• Questia Online Library , allows full-text search, and paid subscription reading access to 64,000+ books and 1,000,000+ journal, magazine, and newspaper articles in their collection. Their strength is full text of recent academic books by major publishers such as Oxford University Press, University of North Carolina Press, and Greenwood Press, along with thousands of older academic books that are available only in larger university libraries.

Films

When seeking out references to establish the notability of a film, and to provide the necessary information for a thorough article of high quality, consider some of these resources:

1. A film's entry in the The Internet Movie Database can provide valuable information, including links to reviews, articles, and media references. A page in the database does not by itself establish the film's notability, however.
2. Film and entertainment periodicals abound. Many magazines in Category:Film magazines can provide good references and indicators of notability.

See the article Wikipedia:WikiProject Films/Resources for a listing of a variety of resources and links which can be useful as references in film articles.

Music

Good online sources for recordings are the Freedb search engine or the Allmusic search engine. To find ownership information on song texts copyrighted in the US, the ASCAP ACE Title Search and BMI Repertoire Search utilities are invaluable. When looking in depth, a Google book search may turn something up. For material that has captured the attention of academics, a search on Google scholar may work. An experienced editor also provides a guide on ensuring that articles meet criteria.