Wikipedia:GLAM/Beginner's guide to Wikipedia

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Userpages & sandboxes

Your first articles

• In general:

1. Look for independent sources that comply with the reliable sources guideline that give significant discussion to the topic, not just passing mentions. Start with great sources. Think New York Times, and not "some blog" or not a company's website, and think New England Journal of Medicine, not Biology and Medicine. (The latter is published by OMICS Publishing Group which is the most often discussed predatory publisher . Be aware that predatory publishers exist, and don't use articles in journals they publish; you can check publishers at Beall's list.) Also beware of churnalism sources that look like they independent but are lightly edited press releases. Once you have seen a few of these they are very easy to spot.
2. Look at the sources you found, and see if you have enough per WP:Golden rule to even go forward. If you don't, you can stop right there.
3. Read the sources you found, and identify the main and minor themes to guide you with regard to WP:WEIGHT - be wary of distortions in weight due to WP:RECENTISM
4. Be mindful of the manual of style in all things (WP:MOS) but also go look at manual of style guideline created by the relevant WikiProject, to guide the sectioning and other subject-specific style matters (you can look at articles on similar topics but be ginger because WP has lots of bad content). Use these project style guides to create an outline. (For example, for biographies, the relevant project is WP:WikiProject Biography and for companies, the relevant project is Wikipedia:WikiProject_Companies/Guidelines.
5. Create the blank article page following the process described at articles for creation for your first few articles. (If you don't know how to create a new article directly, maybe wait until you do to try, and just rely on AfC for a while :) )
6. Start writing the body, based only on what is in the sources you have, and provide an inline citation for each sentence as you go. (See note about formatting citations below) Set up the References section and click "preview" plenty as you go, so you can see how it is going. See WikiMarkup for help with markup, and for citations, click on the Cite button at the top of the Edit window to add citations.
7. Make sure you write in neutral language. The most rigorous way to do this is to use no adjectives at your first go-round (!) and add them back only as needed. Also write simply, in plain English. Not informally, but simply. Try to write so that anybody with a decent education can understand.
8. When you are done, write the lead and add infobox, external links, etc. (for external links, please be sure to follow WP:ELNO - we only do one "personal" external link, so don't include a person or institution's own website and their Facebook page and their Twitter feed etc. Just one.)
9. Images are great to include!

   Check the Commons for images already uploaded of the topic.

   Click on the image to bring up its page in Commons.

   Click "Use this file" next to the Wikipedia symbol, located above the image.

   Copy the top option, which will look like [[File:Baby Louie oviraptorid.jpg|thumb|Baby Louie oviraptorid]].

   Click on the Edit tab of the draft page.

   Add an edit summary such as "Added image" and click Publish changes.

10. Consider adding banners to the Talk page, joining the draft article to relevant Wikiprojects, which will help attract editors who are interested and knowledgeable to help work on the article. (You can look at the Talk pages of articles on similar topics, to see what WikiProjects are involved in them). If your GLAM relationship creates a conflict of interest, note that on the Talk page as well.
11. The completed work should have nothing unsourced (because the sources drove everything you wrote, not prior knowledge or personal experiences); there should be no original research nor promotional content in it.
12. If you are using AFC, submit the draft article for review by clicking the "submit your draft" button that was set up when you created the article. You will get responses from reviewers, and you can work with them to do whatever is needed to get the article ready to be published.

• If you are creating an article about an object in your institution's collection, you can use the GLAM Article Template as a way to automatically add headings and an infobox to your draft and article.

1. Copy the following text and paste it into the new draft page: {{subst:GLAM Article}}
2. Publish the page and include a note in the Edit summary such as "GLAM template". You'll notice that the page now has new headings.
3. Edit the draft again to see the template code, which includes suggestions in brackets that look like <!-- this-->. Do not put your content in between these brackets or it will not appear when you save and publish it. The information in the brackets is just there to remind you what to put where.
4. Remove all of the suggestions and brackets (<!-- content-->) after you've added your research and filled out the infobox. Only the research, references, and WikiMarkup that you added should remain (in addition to the headings and Infobox).

After the article is created in mainspace

• Please be aware that everything in Wikipedia (except pages in Userspace) can be edited by anyone. Neither you nor anyone else "own" the article. Wikipedia articles can always be added to! They are never actually "done".

• Find any appropriate categories to add to the article. In the Wikipedia search box type Category: followed by whatever category topic you are searching for. If the category exists, add it. (Example: Dinosaurs, Archaeology, Public Art).

1. On the article's main page click Edit.
2. Add the category code (for example:[[Category:The Children's Museum of Indianapolis]]) to the bottom of the article. These should appear on the article's main page (not the Talk Page).
3. It is preferred that you include the most specific category possible (for example: "Glass artworks" instead of "artwork".)

• Link the article: Go to other Wikipedia articles that mention the topic and if a wikilink would add value to that article, add a wikilink to the article.
• Did You Know: If the article is new, or you expanded the content of an article by five (known as "five times expanded"), the article is eligible for the Did You Know column on the Wikipedia Main Page.
  

- 'Submit a nomination!

• Article Assessment: It useful to have the relevant WikiProject assess the article - see article assessment. You can post a note at the talk page of the relevant WikiProjects asking for independent editors to assess it.

Help

Use these resources to find help anytime, anywhere.