Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists

For the overall list style guideline, seeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists.For additional list-related material, seeWikipedia:Lists.

Stand-alone lists(also referred to aslist articles) arearticlescomposed of one or moreembedded lists,or series of items formatted into a list. Many stand-alone lists identify their content's format in their titles, beginning with descriptors such as "List of"(List of sovereign states), "Timeline of"(Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic), or similar.

In the interests of centralization of advice, this guideline page includes content guidelines, listed first; for style guidelines particular to stand-alone lists, see§ Style;for naming conventions, see§ Titles.

Notability

This section is an excerpt fromWikipedia:Notability § Stand-alone lists.[edit]

Notability guidelines also apply to the creation of stand-alone lists and tables. Notability of lists (whether titled as "List of Xs" or "Xs" ) is based on the group. One accepted reason why a list topic is considered notable is if it has been discussedas a group or setby independent reliable sources, per the above guidelines; and other guidelines onappropriate stand-alone lists.The entirety of the list does not need to be documented in sources for notability, only that the grouping or set in general has been. Because thegroup or setis notable, the individual entries in the list do not need to be independently notable, although editors may, at their discretion,choose to limit large lists by only including entries for independently notable itemsor those with Wikipedia articles.

There is no present consensus for how to assess the notability of more complex and cross-categorization lists (such as "Lists of X of Y" ) or what other criteria may justify the notability of stand-alone lists, althoughnon-encyclopedic cross-categorizationsare touched upon inWikipedia:What Wikipedia is not § Wikipedia is not a directory.Lists that fulfillrecognized informational, navigation, or development purposesoften are kept regardless of any demonstrated notability. Editors are still urged to demonstrate list notability via the grouping itself before creating stand-alone lists.

List contents

Content policies

Main page:Wikipedia:Core content policies

Being articles, stand-alone listsaresubject to Wikipedia'scontent policies,such asverifiability,no original research,neutral point of view,andwhat Wikipedia is not,as well as thenotabilityguidelines.

General formats of list articles

There are a number of formats, both generalized and specialized, that are currently used on Wikipedia, for list articles.

• Alphabetized lists,such asWikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics/List of mathematics articles (0–9)andIndex of economics articles,as well as simple Alpha betized lists without letter subheadings.
• Annotated lists,such asList of business theorists,andList of bicycle manufacturing companies.
• Chronological lists,such asDeaths in 2007andList of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction.(Lists whose titles begin with "timeline of" are always chronological.)
• Sortablelists, which are formatted astables,such asList of social networking services.
• Subheading-structured lists(i.e.,categorizedorhierarchical lists), such asList of cat breeds,Lists of mathematics topicsandLists of philosophers.

Specialized list articles

• Outlines,from the general (Outline of mathematics) to the somewhat specific (Outline of algebraic structures), are part of Wikipedia'sContentsnavigation system, and are indexed atWikipedia:Contents/Outlines.A type oftree structure,they are hierarchies of subjects organized as a structured list including headings, subheadings, and list items (usually bulleted, and preferably annotated).For more information, seeoutline (list),andWikiProject Outlines.
• Indices,Alpha betized lists of articles on a given subject, are part of Wikipedia'sContentsnavigation system, and are listed atWikipedia:Contents/Indices.Examples includeIndex of psychology articlesandIndex of Syria-related articles.For more information, seeindex (publishing),andWikiProject Indexes.
• Timelines,using astandardized layoutto present a chronological summary of a topic; examples includeTimeline of architectural stylesandGraphical timeline of the Big Bang.There is a specialMediaWiki timeline syntax,but most Wikipedia timeline list articles do not presently use this recently introduced feature.For more information, seetimeline.
• Order of battle– a representation of armed force components that shows the hierarchical organization andcommand structure.
• Lists of worksincludebibliographiesanddiscographies.Bibliographies are a list of relevant references for a subject area, including books, journal articles, and web articles; discographies are a listing of all recordings on which a musician or singer features, or may be compiled based on genre or record label.
• Glossaries,using one of severalglossary formatting styles,are usually Alpha betized lists of terms with annotations defining them in an encyclopedic way; examples includeGlossary of philosophyandGlossary of pinball terms.The format can also be used for some other purposes. Non-encyclopedic glossary material may be migrated toWiktionary(see§ Lists of wordsfor more information).For more information, seeglossary,andWikiProject Glossaries.
• Set index articles– document a set of items that share the same (or a similar) name. They are different fromdisambiguationpages in that they are full-fledged articles meant to document multiple subjects, while disambiguation pages are for navigation purposes only. Not all set index articles are lists.

Appropriate topics for lists

The potential for creating lists is infinite. The number of possible lists is limited only by our collective imagination. To keep the system of lists useful, we must limit the size and scope of lists.

Lists that are too general or too broad in scope have little value, unless they are split into sections. For example, a list of brand names would be far too long to be of value. If you have an interest in listing brand names, try to limit the scope in some way (by product category, by country, by date, etc.). This is best done by sectioning the general page under categories. When entries in a category have grown enough to warrant a fresh list-article, they can be moved out to a new page, and be replaced by a See [[new list]] link. When all categories become links to lists, the page becomes a list repository or "List of lists"and the entries can be displayed as a bulleted list.

Lists that are too specific are also a problem. The "list of one-eyed horse thieves from Montana" will be of little interest to anyone other than the creator of the list. A list should be defined so that a reasonable number of readers seek it out.

Some Wikipedians feel that some topics are unsuitable by dint of the nature of the topic. Following the policy spelled out inWhat Wikipedia is not,they feel that some topics are trivial, non-encyclopedic, or not related to human knowledge. If you create a list like the "list of shades of colors of apple sauce", be prepared to explain why you feel this list contributes to the state of human knowledge.

Lists of people

See also:Wikipedia:ALMAMATER,Wikipedia:Namechecking,andWP:MEDCASE

Because the subject of many lists is broad, a person is typically included in a list of people only if both of the following requirements are met:

• The person meets theWikipedia notability requirement.
• The person's membership in the list's group isestablishedbyreliable sources.

There are some common exceptions to the typical notability requirement:

• If the person isfamous for a specific event,the notability requirement need not be met. If a person in a list does not have a Wikipedia article about them, a citation (or link to another article) must be provided to: a) establish their membership in the list's group; and b) establish their notability on eitherBLP1EorBIO1E.
• In a few cases, such as lists of people holding notable positions, the names of non-notable people may be included in a list that is largely made up of notable people, for the sake of completeness.

In other cases, editors choose even more stringent requirements, such as already having an article written (not just qualifying for one), or being notable specifically for reasons related to membership in this group. This is commonly used to control the size of lists that could otherwise run to thousands of people, such as theList of American film actresses.

For instance, articles about schools often include (or link to) a list of notable alumni/alumnae, but such lists are not intended to contain everyone who verifiably attended the school. (Wikipedia editors who would like to be identified as an alumnus/alumna should instead use the categories intended for this purpose, e.g.Category:Wikipedians by alma mater.) On the other hand, a list within an article of past school presidents, headmasters or headmistresses can contain the names of all the people who held this post, not just those who are independently notable.

Special care must be taken when adding living persons to lists based onreligionor onsexual orientation.For further information, see Wikipedia's policy onbiographical information about living people,in particular thecategory/list policyfor living persons. There is aneditnoticeavailable for lists of people:{{Editnotice for lists of people}}.

Please document the list selection criteria on the talk page of the list.

Note that the guidance in this section is particularly applicable to people but applies to lists in general, not only lists of people.

Lists of subtaxa

Wikipedia articles on organisms, such as plants and animals (whether extant or extinct), can sometimes be dominated by long lists of subtaxa. When the article has not developed beyondstubquality, there is little added value to split-off a list of taxa, nor is there much value to split-off a list if the number of taxa is relatively short, such as below 30 items. Although 30 items in a vertical row can already extend beyond what is visible on the screen without scrolling, the visual impact of an included list can be reduced by creating several columns. Another method to create the overview of the taxa involved is by including one or severalcladograms,provided phylogenetic sources are available. If the number of taxa is too large and would upset the balance of an article, it is best to create a new list that is linked to the main article. The elements of such a list should consist of all accepted taxa on the closest lower level (see thefigure on the right hand side) and all elements in the list should be linked to articles on those subtaxa, whether these exist (blue links) or not (red links). The links should be checked by following them to avoid linking to disambiguation pages or synonyms, particularly when dealing with lists ofgenera.

Lists of companies and organizations

A company or organization may be included in a list of companies or organizations whether or not it meets theWikipedia notability requirement,unless a given list specifically requires this. If the company or organization does not have an existing article in Wikipedia, a citation to anindependent, reliable sourceshould be provided to establish its membership in the list's group.

Lists of lists

Wikipedia has many articles that are primarily or entirely lists of other lists (seeList of lists of lists). On lists of lists, nonexistent lists should not be included. That is, all the links in a "lists of lists" should be active (blue, not red).

Lists of lists should also be available as Alpha betical categories. Put lists that have actual content in one of thediffusingsubcategories underCategory:Lists,andalsoinclude it inCategory:Lists of lists.(See§ Titlesfor naming conventions.)

See alsoWikipedia:Lists of listsfor an informal essay on content, purpose, naming etc. of lists of lists.

Lists of words

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Glossaries

Glossaries– Alpha betical, topical lists of terms, rather than of notable entities – are encyclopedic when the entries they provide are primarily informative explorations of the listed terminology, pertaining to anotabletopic that already has its own main article on Wikipedia. AFeaturedexample isGlossary of Texas A&M University terms.Stand-alone glossaries are categorized atCategory:Wikipedia glossaries,as well as topically in article categories. Shorter ones are often better handled asembedded lists,though aredirectfrom a title likeGlossary ofXcan be created to the section, and the redirect added to that category. Such embedded glossaries maysplitlater into in stand-alone glossaries.(SeeWP:Summary stylefor information on when to split sections into child articles.)There are multiple ways offormatting glossaries.See§ Titlesfor naming conventions.

BecauseWikipedia is not a dictionary,many ideas for glossaries, in which entries would be little more than dictionary definitions ( "dicdefs" ), may be better suited toWiktionary.Glossaries that do not meet Wikipedia's notability criteria or not-a-dictionary policy should be migrated to Wiktionary atwikt:Category:English glossaries.Wiktionary also freelyforksWikipedia's encyclopedic glossaries for redevelopment to Wiktionary's purposes and standards, in itsAppendix:namespace.

Some other, non-glossary lists of words can also yield an encyclopedic page, such asList of English words containing Q not followed by U,the condition being thatreliable secondary sourcesfor the topic can be cited.

Selection criteria

See also:Wikipedia:Notability (people) § Lists of people,Wikipedia:Notability § Stand-alone lists,andTemplate:List criteria

Further information:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists § Adding individual items to a list

Selection criteria(also known asinclusion criteriaormembership criteria) should be unambiguous, objective, and supported byreliable sources.Avoid originalorarbitrarycriteria that wouldsynthesizea list that is not plainlyverifiablein reliable sources. In cases where the membership criteria are subjective or likely to be disputed, it is especially important that inclusion be based on reliable sources given withinline citationsfor each item.

When establishing membership criteria for a list, ask yourself if any of the following are true:

• If this person/thing/etc. weren't X, would it reduce their fame or significance?
• Would I expect to see this person or thing on a list of X?
• Is this person or thing a canonical example of some facet of X?

AsWikipedia is an encyclopediaandnota directory, repository of links, or means of promotion, and should not contain indiscriminate lists, only certain types of lists should be exhaustive. Criteria for inclusion should factor in encyclopedic and topicalrelevance,not just verifiable existence. For example, all known species within a taxonomic family are relevant enough to include in a list of them, butList of Norwegian musicianswould not be encyclopedically useful if it indiscriminately included every garage band mentioned in a local Norwegian newspaper. Whilenotabilityis often a criterion for inclusion in overview lists of a broad subject, it may be too stringent for narrower lists; one of the functions of many lists on Wikipedia is providing an avenue for the retention of encyclopedic information that does not warrant separate articles, socommon senseis required in establishing criteria for a list. Avoidred-linkinglist entries that are not likely to have their own article soon or ever.

Common selection criteria

Lists are commonly written to satisfy one of the following sets of objective criteria:

1. Every entry meets thenotability criteriafor its ownarticlein the English Wikipedia.Red-linked entriesare acceptable if the entry isverifiablya member of the listed group and it is reasonable to expect an article could be forthcoming in the near future. Red-linked entries should be accompanied by citations sufficient to show that the entry is sufficiently notable for an article to be written on it (i.e., citations showingsignificant coverage in reliable sources independent of the subject). This standard prevents Wikipedia from becoming a collection ofindiscriminate lists;prevents individual list articles from becoming targets forspamandpromotion;and keeps individual lists to a size that is manageable for readers.
2. Every entry in the list fails the notability criteria.These lists are created explicitly because most or all of the listed items do not warrant independent articles: for example,List ofDilbertcharactersorList of paracetamol brand names.Before creating a stand-alone list, consider carefully whether such lists would be better placed within a "parent" article. (Note that this criterion is never used for living people.)
3. Short, complete lists of every item that is verifiably a member of the group.These should only be created if a complete list is reasonably short (less than 32KB) and could be useful (e.g., for navigation) or interesting to readers. The inclusion of items must be supported by reliable sources. For example,Listed buildings in Rivington.If reliable sources indicate that a complete list would include the names of ten notable buildings and two non-notable buildings, then you are not required to omit the two non-notable buildings. However, if a complete list would include hundreds or thousands of entries, then you should use the notability standard to provide focus to the list.

"Creation guide" lists—lists devoted to a large number ofredlinked(unwritten) articles, for the purpose of keeping track of which articles still need to be written—don't belong in the main namespace. Write these in your userspace, or in aWikiproject's space, or list the missing articles atWikipedia:Requested articles.

Citing sources

Stand-alone lists are subject to Wikipedia's content policies and guidelines for articles, includingverifiabilityandciting sources.This means statements should besourced where they appear,and they must provideinline citationsif they contain any of thefour kinds of material absolutely required to have citations.

When an inline citation is not required by a sourcing policy and editors choose to name more sources than strictly required, then eithergeneral referencesor inline citations may be used. It is generally presumed thatobviously appropriate material,such as the inclusion ofapplein thelist of fruits,does not require an inline citation.

Style

This section is about stand-alone list style. For embedded list style, seeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists § Embedded lists.

This section presents some particular style and layout considerations specifically for stand-alone lists,in addition tothe generalWP:Manual of Style/Lists,which pertains to all lists on Wikipedia.

Lead

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section

A stand-alone list should begin with alead sectionthat summarizes its content, provides any necessary background information, gives encyclopedic context, links to other relevant articles, and makes direct statements aboutthe criteria by which members of the list were selected,unless inclusion criteria are unambiguously clear from the article title. This introductory material is especially important for lists that feature little or no other non-list prose in theirarticle body.Even when the selection criteria might seem obvious to some, an explicit standard is often helpful to both readers, to understand the scope, and other editors, to reduce the tendency to include trivial or off-topic entries. The lead section can also be used to explain the structure of embedded lists in the article body when no better location suggests itself.

Chronological ordering

Chronological lists, including all timelines and lists of works, should be in earliest-to-latest chronological order. Special cases which specifically require frequent daily additions, such asDeaths in 2024,may use reverse chronological order for temporary convenience, although these articles should revert to non-reverse order when the article has stabilized, as is the case withDeaths in 2003.

Categorization

List articles should be categorized under one of thediffusingsubcategories underCategory:Lists.

Alternatives to lists (categories and navigation templates)

Main page:Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates

As useful as lists are, certain lists may get out of date quickly; for these types of subjects, a category may be a more appropriate method of organization. SeeWikipedia:CategorizationandWikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templatesfor more information on the appropriate times to use lists versus categories.

Taxonomic links

For many genera there may be a considerable number of species. For the smaller genera ataxoboxmay suffice but for the more speciose genera such asAnophelesit is probably better to move these into their own page. The bulk of the page will be taken up by the list. Such lists do qualify as encyclopedic: for many of these genera there are specialized monographs to assist in the identification of these species.

Bulleted and numbered lists

• Do not use lists if a passage is read easily as plain paragraphs.
• Use proper wikimarkup- or template-based list code(seeWP:Manual of Style/ListsandHelp:List).
• Do not leave blank lines between items in a bulleted or numbered list unless there is a reason to do so, since this causes the wiki software to interpret each item as beginning a new list.
• Use numbers rather than bullets only if:
  • a need to refer to the elements by number may arise;
  • the sequence of the items is critical; or
  • the numbering has some independent meaning, for example in a listing of musical tracks.
• Use the same grammatical form for all elements in a list, and do not mix sentences and sentence fragments as elements.
  • When the elements are complete sentences, each one is formatted with sentence case (i.e., the initial letter is capitalized) and a final period.
  • When the elements are sentence fragments, the list is typically introduced by a lead fragment ending with a colon. When these elements are titles of works, they retain the original capitalization of the titles. Other elements are formatted consistently in either sentence case or lower case. Each element should end with a semicolon, with a period instead for the last element. Alternatively (especially when the elements are short), no final punctuation is used at all.

Titles

Main page:Wikipedia:Naming conventions (lists)

For multi-page lists (a.k.a. "long lists" ), seeWikipedia:Naming conventions (lists) § Long (split) list naming recommendations.

A common practice is to entitle list articles asList of___ (for exampleList ofXs). If (as is often the case), the list has multiple columns and so is in layout table form, the name or titleList ofXsis still preferable toTable ofXsorComparison ofXs(though the latter may be appropriate for articles that are actual tables of data comparing numerous features, e.g.Comparison of Linux distributions).

Alist of listsofXcould be at eitherLists ofXor atList ofX:e.g.,Lists of books,List of sovereign states;the plural form is more prevalent.

The title is not expected to contain a complete description of thelist's subject.Many lists are not intended to contain every possible member, but this does not need to be explained in the title itself. For example, the correct choice isList of people from the Isle of Wight,notList of people who were born on or strongly associated with the Isle of Wight and about whom Wikipedia has an article.Instead, the detailed criteria for inclusion should be described in the lead, and a reasonably concise title should be chosen for the list. Best practice is to avoid words likenotable,famous,noted,prominent,etc. in the title of a list article. Similarly, avoid titles likeList of allXs.

• People:People by nationality are eitherList of FinnsorLists of French people,preferringList of ___ people.United States folk are a special case:List of United States peopleredirects toLists of Americanswhich contains, amongst other things, lists by US state. (Special treatment is necessary becauseAmericanis ambiguous.) Note, however, that lists of people organized by individualcityshould be atList of people from[city],rather thanList of[city]people.In all relevant lists,peopleis far preferred to alternatives such aspersonsorindividuals.
• Language:Poets and authors listed by language are at, for exampleList of German-language poets(seeList of poetsfor the list-of-lists of them).
• Fiction and real life:List of fictional dogsis a list of fictional creatures, whereasList of individual dogsis a list with real-life examples. Note that the lead section of each list explains what criterion or criteria that list's entries meet.

Set index articlesdo not need to be titled withlist ofunless there is also another article or a disambiguation page using that title. For example,Dodge Chargeris a list of cars named Dodge Charger, but does not need to be titledList of cars named Dodge Charger.However, sinceSignal Mountainis a disambiguation page, the related set index article is atList of peaks named Signal Mountain.

Three other special lists types have their own naming patterns. Glossaries are usually titledGlossary ofXorGlossary ofXterms,though if they contain substantial non-list prose about the nature or history of terminology relating to the topic, as well as a glossary list, a title such asXterminologymay be more appropriate. Timelines are named in the formTimeline ofXorGraphical timeline ofX.Outlines are namedOutline ofXorOutline ofXs.

Lists and the "Related changes" link

A very useful Wikipedia feature is to use the"Related changes" linkwhen on a list page. This will show you all the changes made to the links contained in the list. If the page has a link to itself, this feature will also show you the changes made to the list itself.

See also

• Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates
• Wikipedia:Featured lists
• Wikipedia:Handling trivia
• Wikipedia:Listcruft
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists
  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Embedded lists
  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Glossaries
  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists of works
  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Road junction lists
• Wikipedia:Set index articles
• Wikipedia:Timeline standards
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Lists
• Help:List
• Help:Table
• Portal:Contents/Outlines
• Wikipedia:Comparison Articles and Original Research