Wikipedia:Good article criteria

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Good article nominations

Thegood article criteriaare the six standards by which agood article nomination(GAN) may be compared and judged to be agood article(GA). A good article does not have to meet the more demandingfeatured article criteria.

Criteria

The six good article criteria are the only aspects that should be considered when assessing whether to pass or fail a GAN. Other comments designed to improve the article are encouraged during the review process but should not be mandated as part of the assessment.

Immediate failures

An article may fail without further review (known as a quick fail) if, prior to the review:

1. It is a long way from meeting any one of the six good article criteria
2. It containscopyright violations
3. It has, or needs, cleanup banners that are unquestionably still valid. These include{{cleanup}},{{POV}},{{unreferenced}}or large numbers of{{citation needed}},{{clarify}},or similar tags (See also{{QF}})
4. It is not stable due toedit warringon the page
5. It has issues noted in a previous GA review that still have not been adequately addressed, as determined by a reviewer who has not previously reviewed the article

In all other cases, the nominator deserves a full review against the six criteria. For most reviews, the nominator is given a chance to address any issues raised by the reviewer before the article is failed. Often the nomination is brought up to standard during the review.

The six good article criteria

Agood articleis:

1. Well-written:
   1. the prose is clear, concise, andunderstandable to an appropriately broad audience;spelling and grammar are correct;and
   2. it complies with theManual of Styleguidelines forlead sections,layout,words to watch,fiction,andlist incorporation.
2. Verifiablewithno original research:
   1. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance withthe layout style guideline;
   2. reliable sourcesarecited inline.All content thatcould 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. it containsno original research;and
   4. it contains nocopyright violationsorplagiarism.
3. Broad in its coverage:
   1. it addresses themain aspectsof the topic;and
   2. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (seesummary style).
4. Neutral:it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable:it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoingedit waror content dispute.
6. Illustrated,if possible, bymediasuch asimages,video,oraudio:
   1. media aretaggedwith theircopyright statuses,andvalid non-free use rationalesare provided fornon-free content;and
   2. media arerelevantto the topic, and havesuitable captions.

What cannot be a good article?

• Stand-alone lists,portals,sounds,andimages:these items should be nominated forfeatured listandfeatured picturestatus, if applicable.
• Disambiguationpages andstubs:these pages cannot meet the criteria.
• Featured articles:a good article loses its status when promoted to a featured article. However, demoted featured articles are not automatically graded as good articles and must be reassessed for quality.

See also

• Wikipedia:Good article nominations/Instructions—step-by-step instructions on how to handle the GA process
• Wikipedia:Nominating good articles—advice for nominating an article for GA status
• Wikipedia:Reviewing good articles—guidelines for reviewing an article for GA status
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Physics/Quality Control/Reviewing Cheatsheet—useful suggestions for GA review
• Wikipedia:What the Good article criteria are not—GA reviews should be concludedonlyin accordance with the GA criteria, not personal preferences
• Wikipedia:Compare criteria Good v. Featured article
• Wikipedia:Did you knoweligibility criteria—within 7 days of promotion, a GA article may be nominated for a DYK hook review
• Wikipedia:Featured article criteria—setting your sights on FA criteria may help with the GA review process