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#a2a9b1;background-color:var(--background-color-neutral-subtle,#f8f9fa);box-sizing:border-box;color:var(--color-base,#202122)}.mw-parser-output .ombox.mbox-small{font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ombox-speedy{border:2px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ombox-delete{border:2px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ombox-content{border:1px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ombox-style{border:1px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ombox-move{border:1px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ombox-protection{border:2px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ombox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.9em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ombox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.9em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ombox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.9em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ombox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ombox .mbox-invalid-type{text-align:center}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ombox{margin:4px 10%}.mw-parser-output .ombox.mbox-small{clear:right;float:right;margin:4px 0 4px 1em;width:238px}}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output table.ombox img{max-width:none!important}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .ombox-speedy{background-color:#310402}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .ombox-speedy{background-color:#310402}}</style><table class="plainlinks ombox ombox-notice" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Information_icon4.svg/40px-Information_icon4.svg.png" decoding="async" width="40" height="40" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Information_icon4.svg/60px-Information_icon4.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Information_icon4.svg/80px-Information_icon4.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="620" data-file-height="620" /></span></span></td><td class="mbox-text"><div style="padding-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 5px;"><b>This is an <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Project_namespace#How-to_and_information_pages" title="Wikipedia:Project namespace">explanatory essay</a> about <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Good_article_criteria" title="Wikipedia:Good article criteria">Wikipedia:Good article criteria</a></b>. <br /><div style="font-size:90%;"> This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines" title="Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines">Wikipedia's policies or guidelines</a> as it has not been <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Consensus#Levels_of_consensus" title="Wikipedia:Consensus">thoroughly vetted by the community</a>.</div></div></td><td class="mbox-imageright"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1252059228">.mw-parser-output .module-shortcutboxplain{float:right;margin:0 0 0 1em;border:1px solid var(--border-color-base,#a2a9b1);background-color:var(--background-color-base,#fff);padding:0.3em 0.6em 0.2em 0.6em;text-align:center;font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .module-shortcutboxleft{float:left;margin:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .module-shortcutlist{display:inline-block;border-bottom:1px solid var(--border-color-base,#a2a9b1);margin-bottom:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .module-shortcutboxplain ul{font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .module-shortcutanchordiv{position:relative;top:-3em}.mw-parser-output li .module-shortcutanchordiv{float:right}.mw-parser-output .mbox-imageright .module-shortcutboxplain{padding:0.4em 1em 0.4em 1em;line-height:1.3;margin:0}</style><div class="module-shortcutanchordiv"><span id="WP:CRC"></span></div><div class="module-shortcutboxplain noprint" role="note"><div class="module-shortcutlist"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Shortcut" title="Wikipedia:Shortcut">Shortcut</a></div><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1126788409">.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}</style><div class="plainlist"><ul><li><span class="plainlinks"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:CRC&redirect=no">WP:CRC</a></span></li></ul></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Explanatory essay about Wikipedia:Good article criteria</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238436933" /><table class="plainlinks ombox ombox-notice nutshell" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Walnut.svg/30px-Walnut.svg.png" decoding="async" width="30" height="30" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Walnut.svg/45px-Walnut.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Walnut.svg/60px-Walnut.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="192" data-file-height="192" /></span></span></td><td class="mbox-text"><b>This page in a nutshell:</b> A <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Good_article" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:Good article">good article</a> should not contain any claims that a competent editor could, reasonably and in <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:AGF" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:AGF">good faith</a>, tag with <span class="nowrap">{{</span><a href="/wiki/Template:Citation_needed" title="Template:Citation needed">citation needed</a><span class="nowrap">}}</span>.</td></tr></tbody></table> <p><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Good_article_criteria" title="Wikipedia:Good article criteria">Wikipedia:Good article criteria</a> and <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Did_you_know/Guidelines" title="Wikipedia:Did you know/Guidelines">Wikipedia:Did you know/Guidelines</a> refer to "<b>content that could reasonably be challenged</b>". This concept is in some ways similar to <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">Wikipedia:Verifiability</a>'s concept of "<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Likely_to_be_challenged" title="Wikipedia:Likely to be challenged">likely to be challenged</a>", but is a fair bit broader. That is to say, some things that are not "likely to be challenged" may still "reasonably be challenged". "Likely to be challenged" means a greater-than-50-percent chance of an editor requesting a citation in <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Good_faith" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:Good faith">good faith</a>, and is a rough proxy for whether a given claim is at all controversial.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>a<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> "Could reasonably be challenged" means that, were an editor to request a citation, this would be a reasonable exercise of editorial discretion, rather than pedantry or <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:NOTBURO" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:NOTBURO">bureaucracy</a>. This is more a definition of exclusion: It applies to all but the most obvious claims. </p><p>The "could reasonably be challenged" rule only ever supplements other citation rules. The <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:MINREF" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:MINREF">minimum referencing requirements</a> must always be met, as must specialty requirements such as <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:BLPSOURCE" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:BLPSOURCE">those regarding living people</a> and <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:MEDRS" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:MEDRS">those regarding biomedical topics</a>. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 ext-discussiontools-init-section"><h2 id="What_might_be_unreasonable_to_challenge?" data-mw-thread-id="h-What_might_be_unreasonable_to_challenge?"><span id="What_might_be_unreasonable_to_challenge.3F"></span><span data-mw-comment-start="" id="h-What_might_be_unreasonable_to_challenge?"></span>What might be unreasonable to challenge?<span data-mw-comment-end="h-What_might_be_unreasonable_to_challenge?"></span></h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Content_that_could_reasonably_be_challenged&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: What might be unreasonable to challenge?"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>There is no community-wide consensus as to when a claim is unreasonable to challenge, and there are some editors who feel that all claims can be challenged. However, <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Good_article_nominations/Archive_29#RfC:_change_GA_criteria_to_require_inline_citations_in_all_cases" title="Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations/Archive 29">the request for comment</a> that resulted in the "could reasonably be challenged" rule identified two main categories that many participants did not see as always requiring citations: </p> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Common_knowledge" title="Wikipedia:Common knowledge">Widely-known and non-controversial facts</a>, for instance: <ul><li><span class="example" style="font-family: Georgia, 'DejaVu Serif', serif; color: var(--color-content-added, #006400);">Snow is cold to the touch</span></li> <li><span class="example" style="font-family: Georgia, 'DejaVu Serif', serif; color: var(--color-content-added, #006400);">Giraffes are tall</span></li></ul></li> <li>Facts that can be trivially verified in widely accessible sources, especially when mentioned in passing, for instance: <ul><li>Basic geographic information, like that China is north of Vietnam</li> <li>The definitions of words, including: <ul><li>Paraphrasing a cited source. One can paraphrase <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1248585704">@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .inline-quote-talk{color:#00B785}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .inline-quote-talk{color:#00B785}}.mw-parser-output .inline-quote-talk{font-family:Georgia,"DejaVu Serif",serif;color:#008560;quotes:none}.mw-parser-output .inline-quote-talk-italic{font-family:inherit;font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output .inline-quote-talk-marks{quotes:"\"""\""}</style><q class="inline-quote-talk inline-quote-talk-marks">Smith said Jones was exceptionally amiable</q> as <span class="example" style="font-family: Georgia, 'DejaVu Serif', serif; color: var(--color-content-added, #006400);">"Jones was a friendly person, according to Smith"</span> without needing to cite the definition of "amiable".</li> <li>Describing the source itself. One can call a block of lines in a poem a <i><a href="/wiki/Stanza" title="Stanza">stanza</a></i>, even if no source uses that term specifically about that poem.</li></ul></li> <li>Brief, non-controversial descriptions of entities, especially well-known ones鈥攆or instance, that the <a href="/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation" title="Federal Bureau of Investigation">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> is a U.S. government agency, or that <a href="/wiki/Marie_Curie" title="Marie Curie">Marie Curie</a> was a physicist and chemist.</li></ul></li></ul> <p>However, whether a claim is reasonable to challenge will always be a case-by-case determination. Sometimes, what is perceived as reasonable to challenge may depend on context. In an article about American football, it may go without saying that a <a href="/wiki/Touchdown" title="Touchdown">touchdown</a> is worth six points, but the same statement might need a citation in an article about a Belgian actress. Generally, once a claim has been challenged, <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:MINREF" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:MINREF">a citation is provided regardless</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>b<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Furthermore, editors may always proactively provide citations even for claims that are unlikely to be challenged; this is the <i>de facto</i> practice of many writers of good and featured articles. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 ext-discussiontools-init-section"><h2 id="What_might_be_reasonable_to_challenge?" data-mw-thread-id="h-What_might_be_reasonable_to_challenge?"><span id="What_might_be_reasonable_to_challenge.3F"></span><span data-mw-comment-start="" id="h-What_might_be_reasonable_to_challenge?"></span>What might be reasonable to challenge?<span data-mw-comment-end="h-What_might_be_reasonable_to_challenge?"></span></h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Content_that_could_reasonably_be_challenged&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: What might be reasonable to challenge?"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Short answer: Most claims. </p><p>Long answer: All claims that are "<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Likely_to_be_challenged" title="Wikipedia:Likely to be challenged">likely to be challenged</a>", as defined by that supplement, are by definition reasonable to challenge. Furthermore, there are many statements that may not be prone to challenge, but which it would still be <em>reasonable</em> to request a citation for. For instance: </p> <ul><li><span class="example deprecated-content example-bad" style="font-family: Georgia, 'DejaVu Serif', serif; color: var(--color-content-removed, #8B0000);">The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite</span>: While it is common knowledge that the Moon orbits the Earth, a reader might reasonably wonder whether any other natural body does.</li> <li><span class="example deprecated-content example-bad" style="font-family: Georgia, 'DejaVu Serif', serif; color: var(--color-content-removed, #8B0000);">Wikis can be edited collaboratively</span>: This is generally true, but exceptions exist, so it is reasonable to request a citation.</li> <li><span class="example deprecated-content example-bad" style="font-family: Georgia, 'DejaVu Serif', serif; color: var(--color-content-removed, #8B0000);">France borders Brazil</span>: This can be seen on any map if one knows where to look, but requires the reader to understand the political status of <a href="/wiki/French_Guiana" title="French Guiana">French Guiana</a>, which is non-obvious, and thus may lead to a reasonable request for a citation</li></ul> <p>Under Good Article Criterion #2b, all of these claims need to be cited inline, even if they do not meet the bar of "likely to be challenged", and whether or not someone has explicitly challenged them. In other words, any unsourced claims in a good article must be ones that it would be unreasonable to insist on a citation for. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 ext-discussiontools-init-section"><h2 id="Notes" data-mw-thread-id="h-Notes"><span data-mw-comment-start="" id="h-Notes"></span>Notes<span data-mw-comment-end="h-Notes"></span></h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Content_that_could_reasonably_be_challenged&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Notes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-lower-alpha"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Note that "controversial" in the context of citations does not necessarily refer to ideology or scandals. Unsourced assertions of specific details鈥攑eople's full names, dates of events, population statistics, etc.鈥攁re controversial from an article-writing perspective and will usually be tagged with <span class="nowrap">{{</span><a href="/wiki/Template:Citation_needed" title="Template:Citation needed">citation needed</a><span class="nowrap">}}</span>, except in very short articles that use <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:General_references" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:General references">general references</a> (which are ineligible to be good articles regardless).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">By a strict reading of <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:MINREF" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:MINREF">WP:MINREF</a>, a citation is <em>required</em> in any case where a statement has ever been challenged, even if the challenge is unreasonable. In practice, however, this rule is sometimes <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:IAR" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:IAR">ignored</a> if an editor challenges a statement in blatant bad faith or if the challenge is patently unreasonable or contradictory to policy. For instance, indiscriminately-applied <span class="nowrap">{{</span><a href="/wiki/Template:Citation_needed" title="Template:Citation needed">citation needed</a><span class="nowrap">}}</span> templates are routinely removed from plot summaries per <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:PLOTSOURCE" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:PLOTSOURCE">WP:PLOTSOURCE</a>, even though the content in question would technically now qualify as "Any statement that has been <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:CHALLENGED" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:CHALLENGED">challenged</a>".</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 ext-discussiontools-init-section"><h2 id="See_also" data-mw-thread-id="h-See_also"><span data-mw-comment-start="" id="h-See_also"></span>See also<span data-mw-comment-end="h-See_also"></span></h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Content_that_could_reasonably_be_challenged&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Likely_to_be_challenged" title="Wikipedia:Likely to be challenged">Wikipedia:Likely to be challenged</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Common_knowledge" title="Wikipedia:Common knowledge">Wikipedia:Common knowledge</a></li></ul>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=0" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Content_that_could_reasonably_be_challenged&oldid=1253416653">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Content_that_could_reasonably_be_challenged&oldid=1253416653</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Category</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_supplemental_pages" title="Category:Wikipedia supplemental pages">Wikipedia supplemental pages</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 25 October 2024, at 21:30<span class="anonymous-show"> (UTC)</span>.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License" title="Wikipedia:Text of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License</a>; additional terms may apply. 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