Wikipedia talk:Good article criteria/Alternative version
A good article is a satisfactory article that has met the good article criteria but may not have met the criteria for featured articles.[1] The good article criteria measure decent articles; they are not as demanding as the featured article criteria, which determine our best articles.
What is a good article?
A good article is—
- Well-written:
- the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and
- it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.[2]
- Verifiable with no original research:
- it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;
- reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose);[3] and
- it contains no original research.
- Broad in its coverage:
- it addresses the main aspects of the topic;[4] and
- it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
- Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
- Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute. [5]
- Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio: [6]
- media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and
- media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.[7]
Failing an article
An article can be failed without further review if it has cleanup banners that are obviously still valid prior to the review being conducted, including {{cleanup}}, {{wikify}}, {{POV}}, {{unreferenced}} or large numbers of {{fact}}, {{citation needed}}, {{clarifyme}}, or similar tags. (See also {{QF-tags}}). If the article is a long way from meeting any one of the six good article criteria then it can be failed without being placed on hold. If copyright infringements are found in a nominated article then it can be failed without further review. In all other cases a full review against the six criteria is to be conducted and the nominator given a chance to address any issues.
What cannot be a good article?
- Stand-alone lists, portals, sounds, and images: these items should be nominated for featured list, featured portal, featured sounds, and featured picture status, respectively.
- Disambiguation pages and stubs: these pages cannot meet the criteria.
- Featured articles: a good article loses its status when promoted to a featured article. Accordingly, demoted featured articles are not automatically graded as good articles and must be reassessed for quality.
See also
- Wikipedia:Reviewing good articles—a detailed editing guideline on the mechanics of reviewing an article for GA status.
- Wikipedia:What the Good article criteria are not—an essay which emphasizes that good article reviews should be concluded only in accordance with the good article criteria, not personal preferences.
- Wikipedia:Featured article criteria