Wikipedia:Fictitious references
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
The following is a proposed Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as "policy". |
 |
This page in a nutshell: The citation of non-existent references, or references that are known to be irrelevant, to support article information, is forbidden. |
Wikipedia has a zero-tolerance policy toward the use of fictitious references. A fictitious reference is a source that is listed within an article that an editor has added to support specific text within an article, or to support a claim of notability for the article's topic, while in reality that source does not exist, or has nothing to do with the article and/or the information that the source is supposed to support. Ficitious references typically those are used to support a hoax, original research, essays or opinion passed off as neutral facts, conflicts or interest, blatant advertising or spam, attacks, or otherwise non-notable material passed off as notable.
That a source does not meet Wikipedia's reliable sources guideline does not normally make it fictitious; many editors do not fully understand this guideline, and a source that is considered reliable for one thing (such as a policy position of a candidate) may not be reliable for another (such as what an opponent has said or done).
The use of fictitious references is a form of gaming the system to circumvent Wikipedia policies and guidelines. It is a serious offense because it compromises the integrity of Wikipedia as an encyclopedia. If any fictitious references are found on a page, they, and any information they solely support, shall be immediately removed upon discovery. Editors who find such a reference are encouraged to examine the article to determine if it meets one or more criteria for deletion, even possibly speedy deletion. In addition, editors responsible for the placement of such information should be warned; if they have been previously warned and persistent in such behavior, then may even blocked. Problems should be reported at the administrators' noticeboard.
When in doubt about the truth of such a reference, but also unsure that it is really fake, the accuracy of this shall be discussed. Such a discussion shall bring the hope for an expert who can verify the accuracy of the reference and whatever information it is purported to support. If it is determined that any references or information shall be removed, but there is not definitive proof that its placement was done in bad faith, no action shall be taken against any editors. Any information that is removed can always be reinstated if confirmed to be true.
[edit] Examples of fictitious references
Some examples of fictitious references are:
- Off-web references that do not exist.
- Off-web references that do exist, but do not contain relevant information or the extent of information claimed by an editor.
- Dynamic web pages or dead links where an editor is attempting to mislead other editors by claiming that the information was once contained within them
- Self-created web pages that appear to be reliable sources containing hoaxes or true but non-notable information
[edit] Not violations of this guideline
The following actions are not violations of Wikipedia's fictitious references policy, and shall not be treated as such:
- Mistakenly providing the wrong date, page number, link, or other minor details in a reference
- Use of dynamic web pages or dead links that once contained the information
- Use of unreliable sources in good faith
