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![]() | This page in a nutshell: Conflict of interest should be cited as a cause for some other violation, not a crime in itself. |
Conflict of interest is one of Wikipedia's least understood and yet most cited behavioral guidelines. In a nutshell it strongly discourages promoting interests you are related to unless it is certain that the interests of Wikipedia remain paramount.
Conflicted editors can be an extremely valuable and largely untapped resource as they are often the most equipped and motivated to report on a given subject. Unfortunately some such editors fail to write from a neutral point of view, introduce original reasearch or unverifiable claims, link to third-party websites or breach other policies and guidelines such as those dealing with autobiographies.
Conflicted editors who do choose to contribute should declare their interests, both on their user pages and on the talk page of any article they edit, and be sure to write in a neutral tone and cite reliable, third-party published sources, and beware of unintentional bias.