Welcome to the Assessment Department of the Soil WikiProject. This group focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's soil articles. The resulting article ratings are used within the project to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work, and are also expected to play a role in the WP:1.0 program.

Assessment is done in a distributed system (with many people and automated "bots") when values are included for the two "parameters" in the {{WikiProject Soil}} project banner template, as described in the syntax below. The different values cause the articles to be placed in the appropriate sub-categories of Category:Soil articles by quality and Category:Soil articles by importance.

1. What is the purpose of the article ratings?

The rating system allows the project to monitor the quality of articles in our subject areas, and to prioritize work on these articles. It is also utilized by the Wikipedia 1.0 program to prepare for static releases of Wikipedia content. Please note, however, that these ratings are primarily intended for the internal use of the project, and do not necessarily imply any official standing within Wikipedia as a whole.

2. How do I add an article to the WikiProject?

Just add {{WikiProject Soil}} to the talk page; there's no need to do anything else.

3. Someone put a {{WikiProject Soil}} template on an article, but it doesn't seem to be within the project's scope. What should I do?

Because of the large number of articles we deal with, we occasionally make mistakes and add tags to articles that shouldn't have them. If you notice one, feel free to remove the tag, and optionally leave a note on the talk page of this department (or directly with the person who tagged the article).

4. Who can assess articles?

Anyone, as long as you are prepared to defend your decision

5. How do I rate an article?

Check the article grading scheme and select the level that best matches the state of the article; then, follow the instructions below to add the rating to the project banner on the article's talk page. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process that must be followed; this is documented in the assessment instructions.

6. Can I request that someone else rate an article?

Of course; to do so, please list it in the section for assessment requests below.

7. What if I don't agree with a rating?

You can list it in the section for assessment requests below, and someone will take a look at it. Alternately, you can ask any member of the project to rate the article again. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process that must be followed; this is documented in the assessment instructions.

8. Aren't the ratings subjective?

Yes, they are somewhat subjective, but it's the best system we've been able to devise. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to let us know!

9. What if I have a question not listed here?

If your question concerns the article assessment process specifically, please refer to the discussion page for this department; for any other issues, leave a message on the talk page.

The {{WikiProject Soil}} template may already exist on the talk page of an article, and anyone can add the template to a talk page. There are two values that can be used in the template for rating an article. Remember that these ratings are not absolute and can be changed at any time. The quality and importance of a topic is to be considered in the wide context of soil in all regions of the world and a broad perspective. The main criteria are suitability of the topic for inclusion in an encyclopedia and complete citation of source information.

Quality assessment[edit]

Basic syntax

{{WikiProject Soil | class=stub | importance=low }}

Importance assessment[edit]

Basic syntax

{{WikiProject Soil | class=stub | importance=low}}

For more information, refer to Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Release Version Criteria#Importance of topic

New Assessment Department participants, simply add your name to this list: (add me)

• Paleorthid (talk · contribs)

If you have made significant changes to an article and would like an outside opinion on a new rating for it, please feel free to list it below. (add an article)

If you have made significant changes to a B-class or GA-class article and would like an outside opinion on a new rating for it, please list it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Soil/Peer review stating in the introduction you would like the article reviewed to see if it is A-class.