Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Reviewing instructions

AfC submissions must be reviewed in accordance with Wikipedia's established content policies and these instructions. If you are unfamiliar with core content policies you should not conduct AfC reviews. Editors involved in the reviewing process must meet the criteria listed on the main page .

Warning: You take full responsibility for any action you perform using AFC Helper Script. You must understand Wikipedia policies and use this tool within these policies, or risk being blocked from editing.

Not everyone can review potentially new articles like they can edit Wikipedia. For criteria to become a reviewer, see Participants.

The "Articles for creation helper script" is a script that assists in reviewing article submissions. The script can accept and decline article submissions, mark submissions as under review, tag submissions for deletion, and add comments to submissions without changing their status. The script will also automatically notify the author of the outcome and can be used to create the respective talk page of an accepted submission.

It is very highly recommended that reviewers use the script when reviewing, as it ensures that editors are notified and templates are removed from articles once they have been created. Though it is technically possible to do the process manually, it needs to be done exactly in every detail to avoid confusion to the contributors and other reviewers.

Editors must read the script documentation and the reviewing instructions below before starting to review submissions. The documentation and the discussion pages for the script are located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Helper script.

To install the script go to your user preferences and check the checkbox at: Preferences → Gadgets → AFC Helper Script: easily review Articles for creation submissions (drafts)

All drafts are displayed in the dynamic list at Special:NewPagesFeed. Select 'Articles for Creation' and then from 'Set filters' choose from the multiple options which kind of drafts you would like to review. Submissions sorted by their predicted category can be found at Wikipedia:AfC sorting. This page is updated every day by a bot.

You can also find a list at

}}, which will take you to a random article waiting for your keen eye.

If you are in the process of reviewing a submission, please mark the submission "under review". This changes the visible submission template, alerting other reviewers that someone is reviewing the submission, which reduces occurrence of

. When using the script, simply select Mark as reviewing from the Review tab.

The purpose of reviewing is to identify which submissions will be deleted and which won't. Articles that will probably survive a listing at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion should be accepted. Articles that will probably not survive should be declined. Issues that do not affect the likelihood of success at AFD (e.g., halo effects like formatting) should not be considered.

If this article were nominated for deletion at

WP:AFD

, would it be likely to survive?

Yes, it will probably be kept.	Then ACCEPT it now. (You can tag non-deletion-worthy problems.)
No, it will be deleted.	Then DECLINE it. Please explain why you believe it would be deleted.
Maybe, but I'm not sure.	Then ASK FOR HELP on the talk page.

Avoid the following errors

1. Avoid declining an article because it correctly uses
   living persons
   .
2. Avoid declining an article that meets the
   Wikipedia's citation guidelines
   .
3. Avoid declining an article because the references contain
   cleanup-link rot|date=April 2024}} or {{citation style
   |date=April 2024}}.
4. Avoid declining an article because it contains formatting issues, such as the absence of
   maintenance templates
   to alert other editors to issue(s).
5. Avoid declining an article because
   you personally don't like
   the citation style or formatting.
6. Avoid declining an article because the reliable sources are not
   online or in English
   . Books, magazines, and other print-only sources are perfectly acceptable, and may as well be in another language.

Reviewing workflow

Step 1: Quick-fail criteria

Before reading a submission in detail, check whether it meets any of the quick-fail criteria. If so, it should be declined immediately and in some cases it may be necessary to nominate the submission for speedy deletion.

Step 2: Notability and verifiability

The principle of

!

If what is written in the submission meets the

speedy deletion

in the article mainspace.

Expand this box to learn about notability and verifiability

Articles require significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. Significant coverage References about the subject — at least one lengthy paragraph, preferably more. Not passing mentions, not directory listings, not just any old thing that happens to have the name in it. Several of them. The subject of the article must be notable. Reliable sources Published sources that have a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. A major newspaper, a factual, widely-published book, high-quality generally trusted mainstream publications. Not blogs, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, fansites, Twitter, wikis, or other sites with user-generated content. The content of the article must be verifiable . Independent Nothing written by the subject, paid for by the subject, or affiliated with the subject. Not their website, and not a press release. The sources must be independent . Subject-specific notability guidelines Wikipedia has some subject-specific notability guidelines. Read through the submission and consider if one or more of the guidelines below applies. If it does, and the submission does not meet the relevant guideline or the general notability guideline . Notability guidelines Subject Guideline shortcut Action Academics (professors, scientists, etc.) WP:PROF Decline the submission as about a non-notable academic Astronomical objects WP:NASTRO Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable subject Books WP:NBOOK Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable subject Events WP:NEVENT Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable subject Films WP:NFILM Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable film Geographical features WP:NGEO Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable subject Musical performers or works WP:NMUSIC Decline the submission as about a non-notable band Organizations or companies WP:NCORP Decline the submission as about a non-notable corporation Sports and athletes WP:NSPORT Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable subject Web content WP:NWEB Decline the submission as about a non-notable web presence Other people WP:BIO Decline the submission as a non-notable biography Any subject not covered above WP:GNG Decline the submission as about a generally non-notable subject Verifiability If what is written in the submission meets the verification and the submission should be declined for that reason. Verifiability Reason for denial Action Insufficient verify the content of the submission. Decline the submission as lacking sufficient references to verify the content.

Step 3: Suitability

Now you should read the submission in detail and decide whether it is suitable for Wikipedia. To be suitable, the article must be about a

neutral

point of view. The most common reasons that a submission is not suitable are provided here.

Expand this box to learn about unsuitable articles

Types of unsuitable articles Reason for denial Action Nothing more than a dictionary definition Decline the submission as a nothing more than a dictionary definition A non-notable neologism Decline the submission as a nothing more than a non-notable neologism Appears to be a joke or hoax Decline the submission as a joke Does not conform to the BLP policy[1] Decline the submission as not conforming to the BLP policy[1] Is not written from a neutral point of view Decline the submission as not written from a neutral point of view Insufficient context Decline the submission as having insufficient context to make the subject understandable Too short, but could be merged into Article Decline the submission as too short and suggest a suitable title for the content to be merged into (if applicable). Generally, the author should be able to do this themselves. Anything else covered by WP:NOT Decline the submission as not suitable for Wikipedia; consider writing a custom decline reason in these cases, explaining exactly why the submission is not suitable. ^ a b When reviewing any submission about a living person, remember that the policy on Biographies of living persons includes: "Contentious material about living persons… that is unsourced or poorly sourced — whether the material is negative, positive, neutral, or just questionable — should be 'removed immediately and without waiting for discussion.'" If the submission is a Twinkle , if you have this gadget installed.

Step 4: Accepting a submission

At this point, if you have not found any reason to decline the creation of the article, it should be accepted. Follow the steps here:

Expand this box to learn about accepting a submission

Click the Accept button. Select an appropriate name Give the article an assessment on the quality scale Consider adding categories, and/or appropriate stub-tags by entering the code in the relevant boxes. Add any WikiProject banners that would apply to the article by inserting the template code into the relevant box. If accepting an article about a person, please ensure you tick the biography checkbox, and select the relevant option from the living person drop-down menu. This ensures such articles are placed in Category:Biography articles of living people. Click Accept and publish to mainspace. The script will move the article for you, clean it up, create its talk page, grade it, and notify the submission creator. If you have AWB authorization, you can use AWB to tidy up the new article and carry out typo and general fixes. If you don't have AWB, you can use Auto-Ed to clean up the formatting of pages or do it manually. If the submission is reasonably well-sourced, has a minimum of 1,500 characters of prose, and is generally interesting, consider nominating the article to appear on the main page as part of Did you know? (see instructions). If you cannot publish the draft If a submission, which should be accepted, cannot be moved, you may get one of the following errors: If a proposed article title is triggering the page title blacklist, you will see an error message that reads: Error info:hookaborted : The modification you tried to make was aborted by an extension hook. If you try and move the page manually you will see: MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-move. Please request help with the move from a pagemover at Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests. If the destination page has been Wikipedia:Requests for unprotection . If the page title you have selected already exists as a redirect in mainspace, tag the redirect with {{ the Articles for Creation talk page . A title with a slash would work in the article namespace, but in the draft namespace it generates a subpage. For example, [[Draft:AC/DC]] would be understood by the system as the DC subpage of Draft:AC. To properly promote such pages, move the draft to a name without slash, promote the draft, and then move it back to the name with a slash.

Step 5: Other tasks and checks

Please read Wikipedia's

usernames for administrator attention

.

See also

Draft submissions

Draft submissions are designed to replace the

.

Draft submissions are not meant to replace the current

requested moves

once they feel it is ready to be moved to mainspace.

A pending template can be turned into a draft template by replacing the second parameter with the letter "t". NOTE: Please only do this with the creator's permission.

Declining draft submissions

When a draft is submitted for review, there are two AFC submission templates. There is a

is tasked with removing the draft submission template, so only the pending review template should remain. If a draft submission meets the quick fail criteria, then it is declined like any other submission.

Other types of submissions

Articles for creation can also be used to submit templates, disambiguation pages and articles for deletion discussions. In these cases, there are no

for more information.)

AFC also processes

.

Cleaning submissions

The AFC Helper Script is able to clean up the formatting of submissions, including removing userspace/sandbox templates and unnecessary draft templates. From the Review menu, select Other options and then Clean submission. Once the script has finished, reload the page to see a much cleaner submission.

Adding questions or comments

If you want to ask the submitter a question, or just make a comment on a submission, click the Comment option from the Review tab. Some premade templates of common responses can be found in Category:AfC comment templates.

Rejecting submissions

Drafts on topics entirely unsuitable for Wikipedia should be rejected. Rejection is appropriate when you genuinely believe the page would be uncontroversially deleted if it were an article (i.e., the page would be an overwhelming "delete" at

tag should also be added.

Submissions in other namespace

Pending submissions that have been created in userspace (including sandboxes) should be moved to the preferred AfC namespace. You will find a pre-loaded link at the bottom of the pending review template to complete this. You may need to select an alternative appropriate name for the submission, based on its content. Note that the AfC Helper Script will not work in non-AfC namespaces. Submissions in other namespaces that contain the {{

}} template can be moved to AfC space regardless of their status, if it is beneficial to do so.

Duplicate submissions

Sometimes you will notice two or more different submissions on the same subject created by the same editor. You may notice while trying to move a pending submission from userspace, that the preferred AfC title already exists. This is usually the result of new editors who are unfamiliar with the MediaWiki interface and create new pages rather than editing existing ones. In such cases, you should consider requesting a

and confusing new editors. If you find two pending submissions on the same subject, by the same author, you can decline one of them as a duplicate. If you are unsure about how to deal with duplicates, ask an experienced member of the project or an administrator for assistance.

Reviewing manually

In the event of an

}}. If you do this, be careful to follow every step exactly.

Log

If you want to check a reviewer's list of AFC accepts, declines, comments, and edits, you can use the AFC History Tool.