[WikiEN-l] "Reliable sources" - how to find 'em (was guideline being treated as absolute policy)

Wed Dec 6 10:16:50 UTC 2006

On 11/28/06, MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I see no reason why we should be flexible about sources. If it hasn't got
> sources it can be deleted, regardless whether this is a policy or a
> guideline. It may be kept if someone bothers to find the sources the
> author
> should have included, but that might not happen.

<snip>
I agree. As a matter of practicality, finding sources after the fact of
writing, especially if you're not intimately familiar with the topic, is
much more difficult than just including the original sources in the first
place, and is probably less accurate. Even a 'further reading' section is
more helpful than no sources whatsoever. I've been working on sourcing old
articles on and off for a while, and it's an uphill battle; there are plenty
of people willing to tag articles as unverified, but far fewer it seems are
willing to sit down & do the research to come up with sources.

At any rate, this seems like a good time to remind people of the resources
for sourcing that exist:

* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_Fact_and_Reference_Check]] provides links to the
unsourced catagories, discussion & directions
* [[Wikipedia:Citation_templates]] -- some templates for sources, which I
haven't seen in wide use yet; a corollary to
* [[Help:Footnotes]] fun with footnotes
* [[Wikipedia:Newspapers_and_magazines_request_service]] -- participants
will try and get you an electronic copy of an article, if you come up with
the citations, can also do some database checking as well (this project
needs to have life breathed into it again, and more participants)
* [[Wikipedia:Research_resources]] is marked as "historical", but there are
still many good resources there for research on many topics; should be
expanded & made current.

If there are other relevant pages (besides the policies themselves) I would
love to know about them.

And finally, don't forget that fact-checking questions -- "I need a reliable
source to find out exactly when General Custard died" and so on -- are
precisely the sort of thing reference librarians tend to thrive on. And more
and more public libraries are offering chat reference nowadays...
-- phoebe