Skip to Main Content

Wikipedia Editing

Creating a new article

Creating a brand new article can be a daunting task. You'll want to make sure you have gathered several sources on your subject. To create a new Wikipedia page:

  1. Search for the exact name with proper capitalization in Wikipedia.
  2. You’ll get a message this article doesn’t exist and you can click the red linked name to begin creating that article.
  3. You may want to craft your article before putting it out there. In that case build the article in your sandbox first.
  4. If you are new to Wikipedia editing (a new account with less than 10 edits) your new article will need to be reviewed by an experienced Wikipedia editor before it will be posted. So having secure notability will be especially important.

Remember You should not edit articles on yourself, your friends, your family, or even your foes.

Establishing Notability

If you’re creating a new article you need to establish notability. Generally notability is established by inclusion in sources:

"People are presumed notable if they have received significant coverage in multiple published secondary sources that are reliable, intellectually independent of each other, and independent of the subject."

There is no hard number of sources that are required, but generally at least three is a good starting point. It will often depend on the depth of the coverage in the sources and whether or not the mentions are trivial. There are additional ways to demonstrate and unique standards for notability for people in various professions.

Adding Links & Categories

It’s best practice that your Wikipedia article isn’t a dead-end. 

  • Add links to other Wikipedia articles throughout your article by highlighting the relevant text and clicking the link button. It will automatically search for a Wikipedia article on the subject.
  • Add Categories using the Hamburger menu. You can search for and add existing categories, and check out similar articles to find category inspiration.

Add an Info Box

It’s best practice to add an info box with basic information. This shows up on the right side of the entry. You can do this by clicking Insert: Template. You can use the basic infobox tempare, or there are specific templates for infoboxes for different professions that may have more relevant fields. For example you can search for infobox artists and use that template.