This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

This page in a nutshell: An award or medal may merit a stand-alone article if it has been the subject of multiple, reliable, independent, secondary sources, which address the award itself directly and in-depth. Sources primarily about a recipient(s) of the award is not an indication of notability of the award.

This essay provides criteria for use in deciding whether an award or medal^[a] should or should not have a stand-alone article on Wikipedia. Satisfying this notability essay generally indicates an award may merit an article. This criterion applies to:

• Awards granted to individuals, groups of individuals,^[b] or organizations.
• Awards granted by a government, military, international body, non-governmental organization, or private entity.

Criteria

For an award to be presumed^[c] notable, it should meet all of the below criteria:

• An award which meets general notability guidelines and is not excluded under the What Wikipedia is not policy is presumed^[c] to meet notability requirements. This is not a guarantee that there will necessarily be a separate, stand-alone article dedicated to a particular award. Editors may use their discretion to merge or group two or more related awards into a single article or list.
• Notability is not inherited. An award is not notable simply because it is awarded by a notable entity or has been awarded to notable individuals or entities.
• Claims of notability must meet Wikipedia's policy on verifiability. It is not enough to simply assert that an award meets a criterion. Verifiable, independent, reliable sources that substantiate a claim of notability must actually exist.
• Sources used to establish notability must address the award itself directly and in-depth. Sources that are primarily about recipients of an award, rather than the award itself, do not establish notability.
• The award is not excluded by any of the exclusionary criteria outlined below.

• Note: Individual awards contained in Lists of awards articles do not need to meet notability requirements per WP:LISTN, however, the list itself must meet this criteria just as any other list would.

Other considerations

The award may be presumed^[c] notable by meeting general notability guidelines when:

1. It is granted by a nation and the award is at the level of the highest and most prestigious awards that can be granted by that nation.^[d]
2. The award is usually granted in a public ceremony that is regionally or nationally well-publicized by independent sources.^[e]
3. The award is granted as part of a well known nationally broadcast awards ceremony.^[f]
4. The award is granted in specific cases after independent, individual, consideration rather than being automatically granted as part of a routine.^[g] This criteria alone is not by itself enough to presume^[c] notability.

Exclusionary Criteria

The following are reasons which probably exclude an award as meriting a stand-alone article.

1. The award has been granted solely to individuals or organizations to themselves or is granted by an entity they fully or overwhelmingly control.^[h]
2. The award is granted to an individual or organization in exchange for payment or another form of remuneration.
3. The award is granted for promotional reasons by promotional entities.
4. The award has been created by a local government and the award is generally unknown outside of that local government's area. In these cases, the award may merit inclusion in the article about the local government.
5. The award has been created by a local chapter of an organization, is granted solely by the local chapter or very few of the chapters of the organization, and the award is generally unknown outside of those chapters. In these cases, the award may merit inclusion in the article on the organization.
6. It is unclear what the award is granted for or what basis is used for determining who or what receives the award.

Invalid criteria related to the notability

The following are considered invalid arguments for the notability of an award.

1. The award is granted by a nation or international body, therefore the award must be notable.
2. The award is only granted to an individual who has achieved a particular rank or position, therefore it must be notable.
3. Individuals or organizations receiving the award are notable, therefore the award itself must be notable.
4. How long the award has been in existence.

Alternatives to Deletion

The following are suggestion may be alternative to deletion:

• If a series of articles about awards or medals are not notable individually, perhaps they can be grouped together into a list provided they can meet WP:LISTN. For example, a number of military awards from a country could be grouped together as List of military awards from country
• An article about an award could be merged into the article for the entity awarded it and the article redirected to that section. For example an award for an outstanding firefighter in a department could be merged into the article about that fire department.

Notes