This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference. Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump. The current notability guideline for people can be found here.

WP:BIO redirects here. You may have been looking for Wikipedia:Autobiography, Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons, Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography, or Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies).

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 or related group of people 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).

This guideline covers small groups of closely related people such as families, entertainment groups, co-authors, and co-inventors. It does not cover groups of unrelated people which are covered by the Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies) guideline.

People who satisfy at least one of these criteria probably 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. Editors evaluating an article should assume that adequate research will support notability.

Failure to meet these criteria does not mean that a subject should not be included; a biography can be otherwise notable if it meets the Wikipedia's general standards of notability.

• In general:
  • A credible independent biography. ⁴
  • The person has received significant recognized awards or honors.
  • Wide name recognition
  • The person made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in their specific field.⁴
  • Multiple features in credible news media.⁴
  • Commercial endorsements of notable products

• Politicians:
  • Politicians who have held international, national or statewide/provincewide office, and members and former members of a national, state or provincial legislatures.⁵
  • Major local political figures who have received significant press coverage.⁴
  • Just being an elected local official does not guarantee notability.

• Athletes:
  • Competitors who have played in a fully professional league, or a competition of equivalent standing in a non-league sport such as swimming and tennis
  • Competitors who have played or competed at the highest level in amateur sports.

• Entertainers: actors, comedians, opinion makers, and television personalities
  • With significant roles in notable films, television, stage performances, and other productions.
  • Has a large fan base or a significant "cult" following.
  • Has made unique, prolific or innovative contributions to a field of entertainment.

• Creative professionals: scientists, academics, economists, professors, authors, editors, journalists, filmmakers, photographers, artists, architects, engineers, and other creative professionals.
  • The person is regarded as an important figure or is widely cited by their peers or successors.
  • The person is known for originating a significant new concept, theory or technique.
  • The person has created a significant or well-known work, or collective body of work, which has been the subject of an independent book or feature-length film, or of multiple independent periodical articles or reviews.
  • The person's work either (a) has been displayed in a significant exhibition or as a monument (b) has won significant critical attention, or (c) is represented within the permanent collection of a significant gallery or museum of more than local significance.

If the article doesn't make any claim of notability, and you are not able to add one, 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. You should also add the ((notability)) tag to the article to notify other editors.

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 you are not knowledgeable in the subject's field, you should add the ((expert-subject)) tag with a specific WikiProject to solicit help. Many people that appear non-notable to a lay person are notable in a specialized area of interest, and an expert may have access to WP:RS not available online.

If the author fails to present any claim, and no expert responds in a reasonable time, 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)).

WikiBios is an Open Content project for creating biographies of all people -- noteworthy or not. It's GFDL-licensed, and Wikipedia articles that would otherwise be deleted might be better moved there.

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). However, an AfD nomination may result in deletion, on consensus, after a 5 day debate.

Some Wikipedians have articles on them, as seen on Wikipedians with articles. Their status as Wikipedians in and of itself has neither a positive or negative affect on their notability, regardless of whether they were Wikipedians before or after their articles were created (note: WP:COI and WP:VAIN still have bearing on their editing their own articles). If a Wikipedian meets other normal standards for inclusion, such as WP:BIO above, WP:ATT, WP:RS, and WP:V, their status as former, current, or future Wikipedians (editors, administrators, etc.) shall have no bearing on the inclusion nor the deletion of the article in and of itself; all articles, even these to avoid internal Wikipedia conflict of interests, will be judged solely by the applicable policies of notability and inclusion. Being a User on any Wikimedia Foundation project gives no special benefit or bearing to the ultimate fate of the article; articles about Users are to be handled the same as articles on non-Users.

Several articles contain lists of people - for instance, an article on a college usually includes a list of alumni. Such lists are never intended to contain everyone (e.g. not all people who ever graduated from the school). Instead, the list should be limited to notable people: those that already have a Wikipedia article or could plausibly have one, per this guideline. Editors who would like to add themselves to such categories are advised to use categories of editors for this purpose, e.g. Category:Wikipedians by alma mater.

• ^Note 1 : Autobiography and self-promotion are not the routes to having an encyclopaedia article. 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 2 : What constitutes a "published work" is deliberately broad.
• ^Note 3 : 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. The existence of a memorial (e.g., a named chair at a university) is not a substitute for depth of content in published work.
• ^Note 4 : 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 5 : 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.
• ^Note 6 : Sources that are pure derivatives of an original source can be used as references, but do not contribute toward establishing the notability of a subject. "Intellectual independence" requires not only that the content of sources be non-identical, but also that the entirety of content in a published work not be derived from (or based in) another work (partial derivations are acceptable). For example, a speech by a politician about a particular person contributes toward establishing the notability of that person, but multiple reproductions of the transcript of that speech by different news outlets do not. A biography written about a person contributes toward establishing his or her notability, but a summary of that biography lacking an original intellectual contribution does not.