Wikipedia:Notability (people)

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This page is a notability criteria guideline for Wikipedia, reflecting how authors of this encyclopedia address certain issues. This guideline is intended to help you improve Wikipedia content. Feel free to update this page as needed, but please use the discussion page to propose major changes.

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Notability and inclusion guidelines

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Like any encyclopedia, Wikipedia includes biographies of important historical figures and people involved in current events. Even though wiki is not paper, there are some criteria which may be considered for inclusion.

This guideline is not Wikipedia policy (and indeed the whole concept of notability is contentious). However, it is the opinion of many, but not all, Wikipedians that these criteria are a fair test of whether a person has sufficient external notice to ensure that they can be covered from a neutral point of view based on verifiable information from reliable sources, without straying into original research (all of which are formal policies).

People who satisfy at least one of the items below may merit their own Wikipedia articles, as there is likely to be a good deal of verifiable information available about them and a good deal of public interest in them.

This is not intended to be an exclusionary list; just because someone doesn't fall into one of these categories doesn't mean an article on the person should automatically be deleted.

Please see criteria for speedy deletion for policy on speedy deletion. The fact that an article doesn't meet guidelines on this page, does not necessarily mean it qualifies for speedy deletion, as a mere claim of notability (even if contested) may avoid deletion under criterion A7 (Unremarkable people or groups).

In general, an article's text should include enough information to explain why the person is notable, and such information should be verifiable. Biographies of living persons are subject to additional rules and restrictions.

See also Wikipedia:Importance, which attempts to be a generic, all inclusive definition of criteria for inclusion.

• The person has been the primary subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the person.¹
  • This criterion includes published works in all forms, such as newspaper articles, magazine articles, books, scholarly papers, and television documentaries² except for the following:
    • Media reprints of the person's autobiography or self-promotional works.³
    • Works carrying merely trivial coverage, such as newspaper articles that just mention the person in passing, telephone directory listings, or simple records of births and deaths.⁴
• The person made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in their specific field.⁵
• Political figures holding or who have held international, national or statewide/provincewide office, and members and former members of a national, state or provincial legislature.⁶ (For candidates for office, see the ongoing discussion at Wikipedia:Candidates and elections.)
• Major local political figures who receive (or received) significant press coverage.⁵ Just being an elected local official does not guarantee notability.
• Widely recognized entertainment personalities and opinion makers (e.g., - Hollywood Walk of Fame)
• Sportspeople/athletes/competitors who have played in a fully professional league, or a competition of equivalent standing in a non-league sport such as swimming, or at the highest level in mainly amateur sports or other competitive activities that are themselves considered notable, including college sports in the United States. Articles about first team squad members who have not made a first team appearance may also be appropriate, but only if the individual is at a club of sufficient stature that most members of its squad are worthy of articles. Third party verification from a non-trivial publication outside of publications by sponsors of the sport or activity should be provided to demonstrate that the subject is widely recognized—meeting the first criteria—as performing in a fully professional league or at the highest level.
• Notable actors and television personalities who have appeared in well-known films or television productions. Notability can be determined by:
  • Multiple features in popular culture publications such as Vogue, GQ, Elle, FHM or national newspapers⁵
  • A large fan base, fan listing or "cult" following
  • An independent biography⁵
  • Name recognition
  • Commercial endorsements
• Published authors, editors and photographers who received multiple independent reviews of or awards for their work
• Painters, sculptors, architects, engineers, and other professionals whose work is widely recognized (for better or worse) and who are likely to become a part of the enduring historical record of that field
• Persons achieving renown or notoriety for their involvement in newsworthy events, such as by being assassinated.

For musicians, see WikiProject Music's Notability and Music Guidelines.

[edit] Alternative tests

Other tests for inclusion that have been proposed (but haven't necessarily received consensus support) include:

• The professor test -- If the individual is more well known and more published than an average college professor (based on the U.S. practice of calling all full-time academics professors), they can and should be included. (For a discussion, see: Wikipedia talk:Notability (academics).)
• Verifiability -- Can all information in the article be independently verified now? (some say) 10 years from now?
• Expandability -- Will the article ever be more than a stub? Could the perfect article be written on this subject?
• 100 year test (future speculation) -- In 100 years time will anyone without a direct connection to the individual find the article useful?
• 100 year test (past speculation) -- If we had comparable verifiable information on a person from 100 years ago, would anyone without a direct connection to the individual find the article useful today?
• Biography -- Has this been written by the subject or someone closely involved with the subject?
• Search Engine Test -- Does a search for the subject produce a large number of distinguishable hits on Google ([1]), Alexa ([2]), Yahoo! ([3]) or other well-known Internet search engine?
• Check your fiction -- advice for creating biographies of fictional characters.
• Notability (pornographic actors) -- Proposed specific criteria for adult movie performers.

See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography, Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies). For a few specific instances, see Wikipedia:Criteria for inclusion of biographies/cases.

[edit] If the article doesn't pass the test

If the article doesn't make any claim of notability, you can add the {{nn-warn}} notice to the talk page of the article's creator. This lets the user know that failure to include such a claim may result in speedy deletion. Often, the author is able to add a claim, but didn't know one was required.

If there is a claim, but you feel it doesn't meet the requirements here, you may wish to explain your position to the user, before nominating it for deletion, in case they may be able to improve it (or they may need to add verification for the claim).

Generally, a personal and specific message, about your concerns about the article, on the article's talk page and/or author's talk page, is more helpful than a generic template message.

If the author fails to present any claim, you can add the {{db-bio}} tag. For a claim that you feel others would not consider worthy, use {{prod}}. For a claim you feel is insufficient, but others may accept, use {{AFD}}.

[edit] Notes

• Note 1: This criterion elaborates what Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_directory says about being "featured in several external sources".
• Note 2: What constitutes a "published work" is deliberately broad.
• Note 3: Autobiography and self-promotion are not the routes to having an encyclopaedia article. The published works must be someone else writing about the person. (See Wikipedia:Autobiography for the verifiability and neutrality problems that affect material where the subject of the article itself is the source of the material.) The barometer of notability is whether people independent of the subject itself have actually considered the subject notable enough that they have written and published non-trivial works that focus upon it.
• Note 4: Non-triviality is a measure of the depth of content of a published work, and how far removed that content is from a simple directory entry or a mention in passing that does not discuss the subject in detail. A 200-page independent biography of a person that covers that person's life in detail is non-trivial, whereas a birth certificate or a 1-line listing on an election ballot form is not.
• Note 5: All of these criteria are in fact simply special cases of the general primary criterion of multiple non-trivial published works from independent sources. A person who is "part of the enduring historical record" will have been written about, in depth, independently in multiple history books on that field, by historians. A politician who has received "significant press coverage" has been written about, in depth, independently in multiple news feature articles, by journalists. An actor who has been featured in magazines has been written about, in depth, independently in multiple magazine feature articles, by magazine article writers. An actor or TV personality who has "an independent biography" has been written about, in depth, in a book, by an independent biographer.
• Note 6: This is a secondary criterion. People who satisfy this criterion will almost always satisfy the primary criterion. Biographers and historians will usually have already written about the past and present holders of major political offices. However, this criterion ensures that our coverage of major political offices, incorporating all of the present and past holders of that office, will be complete regardless.