Wikipedia:List of policies and guidelines

The following is a comprehensive list of policies and guidelines. For descriptive directories see Wikipedia:List of policies, Wikipedia:List of guidelines and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Contents.

Terminology

Wikipedia's rules and best practices are specified in these documents:

File:Green check.svg Policy

A policy documents a rule or standard with wide acceptance among Wikipedia editors that all users should normally follow.

File:Blue check.svg Guideline

A guideline is a set of best practices that are supported by the consensus of Wikipedia editors. Editors should attempt to follow guidelines, though they are best treated with common sense. Occasional exceptions may apply. Naming conventions are considered guidelines.

File:Information icon4.svg Information page

An information page describes a process on Wikipedia and reflects community consensus.

The basics

The Five Pillars

The Five Pillars are the five fundamental principles of Wikipedia:

File:Encyclopedia icon.svg	Wikipedia is an encyclopedia
File:Scale icon green.svg	Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view
File:Jigsaw piece yellow 01.svg	Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute
File:Smiley icon orange.svg	Editors should treat each other with respect and civility
File:Light bulb icon red.svg	Wikipedia has no firm rules

List

Large-print links are broad, fundamental policies and guidelines that apply throughout Wikipedia.

Normal-print links are policies and guidelines that are general in scope but may apply to more specific situations.

Small-print links are policies and guidelines that are specific to a subject area or process on Wikipedia.

	Ignore All Rules – What Wikipedia Is Not
File:Green check.svg Content policies	Neutral Point of View – Verifiability – No Original Research Biographies of Living Persons – Image Use Policy – Wikipedia is Not a Dictionary
File:Blue check.svg Content guidelines	Citing Sources – Do Not Create Hoaxes – No Full Texts of Primary Sources – Identifying Reliable Sources – Plagiarism – Patent Nonsense Autobiography – Accuracy Dispute – Content Forking – External Links – No Disclaimers in Articles – Non-Free Content – Non-Free Use Rationale Guideline – Non-U.S. Copyrights – Offensive Material – Public Domain – Spam – Spoiler Days of the Year – Fringe Theories – Identifying Reliable Sources (Medicine) – Indic Transliteration – Logos – No 3D Illustrations – Record Charts – Scientific Citation Guidelines – Video Game Article Guidelines – Wikipedia Is Not For Things Made Up One Day
File:Blue check.svg Editing guidelines	Article Size – Be Bold – Categorization – Disambiguation – Understandability – Stub – Summary Style As Of – Broad-Concept Articles – Categories, Lists, and Navigation Templates – Copying within Wikipedia – Reviewing Good Articles – Hatnote – Page Blanking – Overcategorization – Preparing Images for Upload – Red Link – Redirect – Set Index Articles – Soft Redirect – Spellchecking – Subpages – Updating Information – User Categories Categorization of People – In The News: Recurring Items – People by Year – Categorizing Redirects – Primary Topic Definition – Extended Image Syntax – Overcategorization: User Categories – Recent Years – Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial Team Assessment Guidelines – Categorization: Ethnicity, Gender, Religion and Sexuality

File:Blue check.svg Notability guidelines	Notability Academics – Astronomical Objects – Books – Events – Films – Geographic Features – Music – Numbers – Organizations and Companies – People – Sports – Web
File:Blue check.svg Naming conventions	Article Titles – Category Names – File Names Acronyms – Capitalization – Country-Specific Topics – Definite or Indefinite Articles – Events – Geographic Names – Numbers and Dates – Long Lists – People – Plurals – Technical Restrictions – Use English Aircraft – Ancient Romans – Armenian – Astronomical Objects – Australian Roads – Baseball Players – Belgium: Castle, Country House, Château and Kasteel – Belgium: Alternate Language Names – Books – Broadcasting – Brussels – Burmese – Law Enforcement Agency Categories – Chemistry – Chinese – Clergy – College Football – Comics – Companies – Fauna – Films – Flora – UK Parliament Constituencies – Government and Legislation – Greek – Hebrew – Ice Hockey – Indic – Irish Categories – Korean – Languages – Latter Day Saints – Macedonia – Manuscripts – Mongolian – Music – New Zealand – Norse Mythology – Operas – Ethnicities and Tribes – Mining – Political Parties – Ships – Sports Teams – Sportspeople – Stations in Poland – Television – Tibetan – Royalty and Nobility – U.S. State and Territory Highways – UK Stations – Video Games – West Bank – Swiss Municipalities – Writing Systems
File:Blue check.svg Style guidelines	Manual of Style (Contents) Content: Accessibility – Biographies – Linking – Self-References to Avoid – Words to Watch – Wikimedia Sister Projects Formatting: Abbreviations – Capital Letters – Dates and Numbers – Pronunciation – Proper Names – Spelling – Text Formatting – Titles Layout: Layout – Lead Section – Lists (Embedded Lists – Lists of Works – Road Junction Lists – Stand-Alone Lists) – Tables – Trivia Sections Images: Images – Captions – Icons Arts – Anime and Manga – Comics – Film – Music (Music Samples – Record Charts – Stringed Instrument Tunings) – Novels – Television – Visual Arts – Writing About Fiction – History – Military History – Blazon – Legal – Legal – Trademarks – Regional – Canada – China – France – Hawaii – India – Ireland – Japan – Korea – Philippines – Poland – Singapore – Trinidad and Tobago – Religion – Islam – Latter Day Saints – Science – Chemistry – Computing – Mathematics – Medicine – TaxoBox Documentation – Sports – Cue Sports – Snooker – Wikipedia Content – Disambiguation Pages – Infoboxes

File:Green check.svg Conduct policies

Civility – Consensus – Editing Policy – Harassment – Vandalism Clean Start – Dispute Resolution – Edit Warring – No Personal Attacks – Ownership of Content – Sock Puppetry – Username Policy

File:Blue check.svg Behavioral guidelines

Assume Good Faith – Conflict of Interest – Disruptive Editing – Etiquette – Talk Page Guidelines Appealing a Block – Canvassing – Changing Username Guidelines – Courtesy Vanishing – Deceased Wikipedians Guidelines – Do Not Disrupt Wikipedia to Illustrate a Point – Gaming the System – Please Do Not Bite the Newcomers – Reviewing – Rollback – Signatures – Spam Blacklist – Linking to External Harassment

File:Green check.svg Deletion policies	Deletion Policy – Criteria for Speedy Deletion – Proposed Deletion Attack Page – Oversight – Proposed Deletion of Biographies of Living People – Revision Deletion
File:Blue check.svg Deletion guidelines	Deletion Process Deletion Guidelines for Administrators – Speedy Keep

File:Green check.svg Procedural policies	Policies and Guidelines – Arbitration Policy – Mediation – Wikimedia Policy Arbitration Committee: CheckUser and Oversight – Bot Policy – CheckUser – Global Rights Policy – IP Block Exemption – Page mover – Open Proxies – Volunteer Response Team
File:Information icon4.svg Procedural information	Bureaucrats – Office Actions
File:Green check.svg Enforcement policies	Administrators – Blocking Policy – Protection Policy Discretionary Sanctions – Banning Policy
File:Green check.svg Legal policies	Copyrights – No Legal Threats – Terms of Use Child Protection – Copyright Violations – Libel – Non-Free Content Criteria – Paid-contribution disclosure – Reusing Wikipedia Content

File:Blue check.svg Project content guidelines	Project Namespace – User Pages Userboxes – WikiProject Council Guide
File:Blue check.svg Template guidelines	Template Namespace High-Risk Templates – Substitution – Talk Page Templates
File:Blue check.svg Reference Desk guidelines	Reference Desk General – Medical advice

See also

• Community standards and advice – a quick directory of community norms and related guidance essays.
• Advice pages – about advice pages written by WikiProjects.

Tutorial

• Introduction to policies and guidelines – a quick introduction to the major policies and guidelines for very new users.

Related essays

• Simplified rule-set – some basic aspect of Wikipedia norms and practices.
  • Eight rules for editing  – if you start out by following these simple rules, the rest should come naturally.
  • Ten rules for editing  – Wikipedia can be daunting, but here we provide tips to make editing smoother.
  • Trifecta – ultra-fast overview of foundational principles related to policies and guidelines.
• The rules are principles – policies and guidelines exist as rough approximations of their underlying principles.