From: <slimvirgin(a)gmail.com>
Peter, you may be right about there being an argument in favor of
saying that Australia is, in effect, a republic. But if you want to
introduce an issue like that into an article, you have to be very
careful not to violate the no-original-research rule, which says that
editors shouldn't come up any new analysis or synthesis of facts. In
other words, if you want to say Australia is a republic, you have to
find reputable sources who have actually said that precise thing, and
not just sources who have said things which, put together in a certain
way in a certain light, could be interpreted as implying that.The
former is okay; the latter is original research.
I find this to be this single most difficult concept to get across to
editors, some of them long time Wikipedia contributors. The inevitable
response is "this isn't original research, these are simple facts." Even if
they are indeed "simple facts" (and that is often not the case), putting
"simple facts" together to build a case, in order to refute a quoted
argument or position you see in some article which you don't agree with, is
"original research." Repeating the mantra "find some reputable cited
source
which makes this argument, don't present it on your own" rarely helps.
Jay.