The following system is used by the Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team for assessing how close we are to a distribution-quality article on a particular topic. The system is based on a letter scheme which reflects principally how factually complete the article is, though language quality and layout are also factors. Once an article reaches the A-Class, it is considered "complete", although edits will continue to be made.
The quality assessments are mainly performed by members of WikiProjects, who tag talk pages of articles. These tags are then collected by a bot, which generates output such as a log and statistics. For more information, see Using the bot. (Note that when more than one WikiProject has rated an article, the bot will take the best rating as the rating of the overall article.) The WP:1.0 team is now setting up to use a second bot to select articles, based on the assessments performed by WikiProjects.
Two levels, GA (Good Article) and FA (Featured Article), are assessments made by independent editors, rather than by WikiProjects. GAs are generally reviewed by a single editor, and FA by a panel. Candidates are nominated by listing them at WP:Good article nominations and WP:Featured article candidates. Judgments are made according to the criteria at WP:Good article criteria and WP:Featured article criteria, and the results are listed at WP:Good articles and WP:Featured articles.
It is vital that editors not take these assessments of their contributions personally. It is understood that we each have our own opinions of the priorities of the objective criteria for a perfect article. Generally an active project will develop a consensus, though be aware that different projects may use their own variation of the criteria more tuned for the subject area, such as this. More active WikiProjects have an assessment team. If you contribute a lot of content to an article you may request an independent assessment.
At present this assessment system is in use in the Wikipedia 1.0 project, and in several hundred WikiProjects on the English Wikipedia. As of May 2017, over 5.1 million articles have been assessed. Several other languages are also using this assessment system or a derivative thereof.
Contents
Grades[edit]
Note: Some WikiProjects omit some of the standard classes, most often A-class, especially when they lack an assessment team.
Non-standard grades[edit]
Some WikiProjects use a few other assessments for the main namespace that do not fit into the scale. The more popular assessments, in no particular order:
Label | Criteria | Reader's experience | Editor's experience | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
Future {{Future-Class}} |
A topic where details are subject to change often. The article covers a future topic of which no broadcasted version exists so far and all information is subject to change when new information arises from reliable sources. With multiple reliable sources there might be information that contradicts other information in the same or other articles. | Amount of meaningful content varies over time as the projected event draws near. | Material added might be speculation and should be carefully sourced. | Preston City Council election, 2014 (as of September 2013) |
Current {{Current-Class}} |
A topic where details are subject to change often. The article covers an event or topic that is currently going on, such as a football game or a sports team's season. | Amount of meaningful content varies over time as the projected event goes on. | Material added might quickly become obsolete. | 2017 Atlantic hurricane season (as of June 2017) |
Disambig {{Disambig-Class}} |
Any disambiguation page falls under this class. | The page directs the reader to other pages of the same title. | Additions should be made as new articles of that name are created. | Aa River (as of June 2008) |
NA {{NA-Class}} |
Any non-article page that does not fit into any other category. | The page does not have article content. | May or may not apply, depending on the type of page. | any WikiProject's internal resources |
Redirect {{Redirect-Class}} |
Any redirect falls under this class. | Collapse Into Now | ||
Book {{Book-Class}} |
Any Wikipedia book falls under this class. | Book:Canada | ||
Template {{Template-Class}} |
Any template falls under this class. | Template:Magnapop | ||
Category {{Category-Class}} |
Any category falls under this class. | Category:George Orwell | ||
Draft {{Draft-Class}} |
Any draft falls under this class. | Draft:Example |
Some WikiProjects use additional grades not listed above, such as those used at WP:Comics. Most common are "Image" and "Needed". See the relevant Assessment page for the WikiProject, at Category:WikiProject assessments.
Evolution of an article – an example[edit]
This clickable imagemap, using the article "Atom" as an example, demonstrates the typical profile for an article's development through the levels. Hold the mouse over a number to see key events, and click on a number to see that version of the article. Please note that until 2008, a C-class rating did not exist on the project, and as such this grading is retroactive. Also, in 2006 references were much less used, and inline references were quite rare; a barely-B-Class article today would typically have many more references than this article did in late 2006.
Importance assessment[edit]
There is a separate scale for rating articles for importance or priority, which is unrelated to the quality scale outlined here. Unlike the quality scale, the priority scale varies based on the project scope. See also a template at {{Importance scheme}}.
Statistics[edit]
The WP 1.0 bot tracks assessment data (article quality and importance data for individual WikiProjects) assigned via talk page banners. If you would like to add a new WikiProject to the bot's list, please read the instructions at Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Using the bot.
The global summary table below is computed by taking the highest quality and importance rating for each assessed article in the main namespace.
See also[edit]
- Wikipedia:Article assessment, the previous version superseded by this version.
- Wikipedia:Assessing articles, an essay on the criteria and purpose of article assessments
- Wikipedia:Metadata gadget, a script (and gadget) that finds articles' assessment information from the talk page and puts it in the article's header.
- User:Kephir/gadgets/rater, a script for tagging articles' talk pages with assessment information
- User:N8wilson/AQFetcher, a script that stylizes links on Wikipedia according to the assessed quality of the target article.
- mw:Article feedback, an initiative of the Wikimedia Foundation to engage Wikimedia readers in the assessment of article quality, one of the five priorities defined in the strategic plan
- Wikipedia:Data mining Wikipedia, a potential use of WikiProject assessments