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This page documents an English Misplaced Pages notability criteria. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

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This page gives some rough guidelines which Misplaced Pages editors use to decide if a book should have an article on Misplaced Pages.

Many Wikipedians are wholly averse to the use of Misplaced Pages for advertising and promotion of non-notable material, and Misplaced Pages articles are not advertisements is an official policy of long standing. Advertising is either cleaned up to adhere to the neutral point of view or deleted. In the latter case, it may be first proposed for deletion or listed at Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion, and Misplaced Pages editors apply the criteria outlined here.

Criteria

A book is notable if it meets any one of the following criteria:

1. The book is by a bestselling author.
2. The book has sold more than 100,000 copies.
3. The book is listed on any major newspaper's or major online bookstore's bestseller list.
4. The book has been made into a major motion picture that was released into multiple commercial theaters
5. The book has been the subject Template:Fn of multiple, non-trivial Template:Fn published works whose source is independent of the book itself.
   • This criterion excludes:
     • Media re-prints of press releases, flapcopy or other publications where the author its publisher, agent or other self-interested parties advertise or speak about the book. Template:Fn
   • This criterion includes published works in all forms, such as newspaper articles, books, television documentaries, and reviews. Template:Fn

Other considerations

Recommendations for products and services

Information on products and services should generally be included in the article on the company itself, unless the company is so large that this would make the article unwieldy. In that case, it is preferable to keep minor products in lists, and major products in their own article.

The distinction between a 'minor' and a 'major' product is somewhat arbitrary. The main point is that if a lot of information is available on a product, it should be split out, and if little is available, it should be merged into a list.

For instance, if a company has twenty different models of cell phone, and there is little difference between them, then compiling a single article for all of them would help readers in spotting the differences and similarities. On the other hand, a new model of car (as opposed to the same model with an 'extra' or two) is generally rather different and should have its own article.

Chains and franchises

Many companies have chains of local stores or franchises that are individually pretty much interchangeable—for instance, your local McDonald's. Since there is generally very little to say about individual stores or franchises that isn't true for the chain in general, we should not have articles on such individual stores. However, a "List of Wal-Marts in Germany" would be informative. Also, an exception can be made if some major event took place at a local store (however this would most likely be created under an article name which describes the event, not the location. See McDonald's massacre for an example).

Notes

• Template:Fnb The "subject" of a work means non-trivial treatment and excludes mere mention of the book, its author or of its publication and price listings.
• Template:Fnb Non-trivial normally excludes blogs, online periodicals, personal websites and other media that are not themselves notable. Be careful to check that the author, his publisher, agent vendor etc. are in no way interested in the third party source.
• Template:Fnb Self-promotion and product placement are not the routes to having an encyclopedia article. The published works must be someone else writing about the book. (See Misplaced Pages:Autobiography for the verifiability and neutrality problems that affect material where the subject of the article itself is the source of the material). The barometer of notability is whether people independent of the subject itself (or of its author, publisher, vendor or agent) have actually considered the book notable enough that they have written and published non-trivial works that focus upon it.
• Template:Fnb Two examples: Many people independent of the Mavalli Tiffin Rooms have published their own accounts of eating there. Hewlett-Packard satisfies this criterion by, amongst other things, being covered in a feature article in the Palo Alto Weekly.
• Template:Fnb Examples of company ranking indices: Fortune 500 and Forbes 500
• Template:Fnb Companies listed on the Fortune 500, Forbes 500, etc. will almost certainly satisfy the first criterion. However, this criterion ensures that our coverage of such rankings will be complete regardless.
• Template:Fnb Examples of such stock market indices: Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, S&P 400, and S&P 600, CAC 40, Nikkei 225, FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 250 Index. See list of stock market indices for more.
• Template:Fnb Companies that form the bases for stock market indices will almost certainly satisfy the first criterion. However, this criterion ensures that our coverage of such indices will be complete regardless.
• Template:Fnb Two examples: Microsoft Word satisfies this criterion because, amongst many other reasons, people who are wholly independent of Microsoft have written books about it. All cars that have had Haynes Manuals written about them satisfy this criterion.

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (companies)

fr:Wikipédia:Notoriété (entreprises, sociétés et produits)

• Subject-specific notability criteria