Wikipedia

Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies

This is a WikiProject page. For a listing of bibliographies on Wikipedia see, Wikipedia:List of bibliographies. For a list of books that have articles on Wikipedia see, Lists of books
WikiProject Bibliographies
Bibliographies in library
ShortcutWP:BIB
CategoryWikiProject Bibliographies
Portalsicon Books
icon Contents/Lists
Parent
project(s)		Books, Lists, Academic Journals
Project banner template{{WikiProject Bibliographies}}
Helps organise child projects?Yes
Has goals?Yes
AssessmentWikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies#Reviews and assessments

Goals

edit

A bibliography, the product of the practice of bibliography, is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from "works cited" lists at the end of books and articles to complete, independent publications. As separate works, they may be in bound volumes or computerised bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a "bibliography", is bibliographic in nature.

Bibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. Bibliographies are a primary tool in academic research for students, faculty and researchers.[1] Within Wikipedia, well crafted bibliographies provide editors with a readily available list of sources that can be used to support creation and expansion of articles on related topics.

Within Wikipedia, bibliographies are specialized lists of books, journals and other references important to the topic of the bibliography. For example: Bibliography of classical guitar is a list of works important to the study of Classical guitar. Bibliographies may also be a listing of published works of an author. For example: Jimmy Carter bibliography is a list of works about or authored by Jimmy Carter.

The primary goal of this project is to improve bibliographies and expand their scope within Wikipedia by establishing a consistent article structure; by ensuring bibliographies follow Wikipedia policies, guidelines and manuals of style; and by identifying topics needing bibliographic coverage and encouraging editors to build those bibliographies.

As of 24 November 2024, there are 1,209 articles within the scope of WikiProject Bibliographies, of which 41 are featured and 1 are good articles. This makes up 0.02% of the articles on Wikipedia, 0.37% of all featured articles and lists, and 0% of all good articles. Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are 3,002 pages in the project.

Relevant guidelines and manual of style

edit

Bibliographies are Wikipedia articles. They must comply with fundamental principles such as Neutral point of view, and policies such as No original research and Verifiability.

Bibliographies are Lists and must comply with the following list-related guidelines and manuals of style:

Bibliographies of living authors must comply with the guidelines for biographies of living persons.

Notability of bibliography articles

edit

A Bibliography of topic article must meet Wikipedia's guideline for stand-alone list notability which is quoted here for clarity.

Notability of lists (whether titled as "List of Xs" or "Xs") is based on the group. A list topic is considered notable if it has been discussed as a group or set by independent reliable sources, per the above guidelines; notable list topics are appropriate for a stand-alone list. The entirety of the list does not need to be documented in sources for notability, only that the grouping or set in general has been. Because the group or set is notable, the individual items in the list do not need to be independently notable, although editors may, at their discretion, choose to limit large lists by only including entries for independently notable items or those with Wikipedia articles.

For a bibliography on a topic to be notable, the members of that bibliography should be discussed as a group in reliable sources. This discussion may take the form of a published standalone bibliography on the topic, a bibliography in a published reliable source on the topic or recommendations for further reading on the topic published in a reliable source on the topic.

Example

edit

For the article Bibliography of fly fishing there are reliable sources that demonstrate notability of the bibliography for each of the source types above.

  • Hampton, Jack (2008). Ken Callahan and Paul Morgan (ed.). Hampton's Angling Bibliography-Fishing Books 1881-1949. Ellesmere, UK: Medlar Press. ISBN 9781899600878. – A published bibliography of angling literature, first published in 1947.
  • Bark, Conrad Voss (1992). "Bibliography". A History of Fly Fishing. Shropshire, UK: Melvin Unwin Books. pp. 175–181. ISBN 1873674031. – Source contains a comprehensive bibliography of fly fishing related books.
  • Gingrich, Arnold (1974). "Annotated List of Some Choice Fishing in Print Since 1935". The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature. New York: Winchester Press. pp. 311–336. – Source contains an annotated list of recommended reading on fly fishing.
edit
See also: Manual of Style for bibliographies

The following subsections recommend a consistent naming convention for bibliographies and a preferred structure for both topical and author bibliographies. The structures recommended are designed to enhance the usefulness of bibliographies for Wikipedia users as well assist editors in ensuring bibliographies meet Wikipedia policies, guidelines and the manual of style.

Naming

edit

The policy within Wikipedia:Article titles applies to the titles of Wikipedia bibliographies. This project seeks to establish consistency in naming bibliographies within the encyclopedia and recommends the following:

  • A bibliography on a topic such as biology should be named Bibliography of biology. Because Bibliography is a recognized type of list in Wikipedia, an explicit use of the word is preferable to titles such as List of important books about biology and Publications on biology. Words like important, influential, landmark, notable and popular in the title are difficult to defend without significant explanation and should be avoided.
    • Topical bibliographies where the topic is a person should be named: Bibliography of works on John Doe. This eliminates confusion with John Doe bibliography which lists works by John Doe (an author bibliography).
    • Topical bibliographies where the topic is a non-person should be named: Bibliography of topic
  • A bibliography of an author such as Mark Twain should be named Mark Twain bibliography.
  • Author bibliographies that contain other types of published works such as music (discography), or film (filmography) in addition to published literature should be called Works of Author, Works of Rambhadracharya for example.

The topic or author of a bibliography should be notable and have an article in Wikipedia.

Topical bibliographies

edit

Topical bibliographies are lists of relevant books, journals and other references on a specific topic. The lead of a topical bibliography should establish the notability of the bibliography by citing at least two sources that demonstrate that relevant books, journals and other references on a specific topic have been discussed as a group.

Explicit, discriminate inclusion criteria

edit

When creating a new bibliography, include a concise lead with explicit criteria for what entries are – and are not – suitable. The inclusion criteria are for the benefit of both readers and other editors; they provide part of the context for the list and make a case for its notability. They should be tied tightly to the title of the bibliography and its organization. Avoid indiscriminate criteria – some of the most popular challenges to bibliographies or lists of works are based on the Wikipedia policies Wikipedia is not a directory and Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Well-defined context helps counter those challenges.

(The lead leaves no doubt as to what constitutes a valid bibliography entry.)
(The inclusion of the words "and related organizations" in the title and "and organizations like ..." in the lead create a partially indiscrimate inclusion criteria since "related organizations" and "organizations like" are not fully defined. Although literature about or authored by Prem Rawat is clearly within the scope of the bibliography, its not clear what kind of relationship to Prem Rawat is necessary to include other literature. )
(The concept of risk is not defined in the lead nor is it linked to the article on risk. Even if it were, the article reveals that risk is such a broad and variable term that it would be difficult to discriminate works about risk from works not about risk. This is a classic case of an indiscriminate lead.)

Single article bibliographies

edit

Most topical bibliographies will be single articles or lists with enough entries to warrant a separate list, yet not so many that a summary style is required. If there are fewer than 10 possible entries in the bibliography, then those entries should be included in a Further reading section in the topic article.

In each section, bibliography entries should be organized either as a bulleted list or wikitable in chronological or alphabetical (by author) order. Bulleted lists and wikitables should not be mixed within the bibliography. Chronological entries are most suitable for bibliographies on topics with a long history of literature on the topic. Chronological entries allow the user to see a progression on works on the topic over time. Alphabetical listings are suitable for shorter bibliographies and those where the difference between the earliest and latest publication dates is not great. Section headings are useful for distinguishing between works of different type or focus.

Examples
edit

Alphabetical bulleted list:

  • Baker, Don (1997). Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie. Boulder, CO: Fred Pruett Books. ISBN 0871080508.
  • Fifer, Barbara (2002). Montana Mining Ghost Towns. Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press. ISBN 1560371951.
  • Miller, Don C. (1982). Ghost Towns of Montana. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing. ISBN 0871086069.
  • Whitfield, William W. (2007). Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps: A Pictorial Guide. Stevensville, Montana: Stoneydale Press Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1931291385.

Chronological bulleted list:

  • Miller, Don C. (1982). Ghost Towns of Montana. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing. ISBN 0871086069.
  • Baker, Don (1997). Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie. Boulder, CO: Fred Pruett Books. ISBN 0871080508.
  • Fifer, Barbara (2002). Montana Mining Ghost Towns. Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press. ISBN 1560371951.
  • Whitfield, William W. (2007). Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps: A Pictorial Guide. Stevensville, Montana: Stoneydale Press Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1931291385.

Sortable table:

Author Title Year Publisher ISBN Notes
Miller, Don C. Ghost Towns of Montana 1982 Pruett Publishing, Boulder, Colorado 0871086069
Baker, Don Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie 1997 Fred Pruett Books, Boulder, CO 0871080508
Fifer, Barbara Montana Mining Ghost Towns 2002 Far Country Press, Helena, MT 1560371951
Whitfield, William W. Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps-A Pictorial Guide 2007 Stoneydale Press Publishing Co., Stevensville, MT 1931291381

Summary style bibliographies

edit

The overall topic of some bibliographies may be so broad as to require a summary style bibliography in which the topic is divided into logical sections, each with only a few entries. Each section should have a {{Main|Bibliography of sub-topic}} template directing the user to the bibliography of the sub-topic. The lead of a summary style bibliography needs to establish discriminate inclusion criteria for the topic and sub-topics just as in the single article bibliography.

Sourcing bibliographic entries

edit

It should be possible to verify that each entry in a bibliography meets the inclusion criteria. Here are some simple rules.

  • If an entry has a Wikipedia article, merely wikilinking it to the article verifies it because the reader can navigate to the article and determine if the entry meets the inclusion criteria:
  • If an entry does not have a Wikipedia article and there might be any doubt that it belongs in the bibliography, it should be cited with a reliable source that verifies its relevance:
  • If an entry includes annotations, even if there is a Wikipedia article on it, the annotations may be verified by citations:
  • A quotation associated with an entry may be useful to show the relevance of the entry to the bibliography. All quotations should be cited according to: the guidelines on quotations:
    • Gingrich, Arnold (1974). The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature. New York: Winchester Press., Gingrich, the well known founding editor of Esquire magazine surveys the major pieces of classic and modern fly fishing literature up through the 1950s. It is an excellent read to get a better understanding of the evolution of the various styles of fly fishing—wet, nymphs, dry, etc. as originally written about by the likes of Halford, Skues, Gordon and Jennings along with many others.

Arnold Gingrich, founding editor of Esquire magazine, is a tremendous part of the literary history of fly fishing. The Fishing In Print, The Joys of Trout, and The Well-Tempered Angler are indispensable titles to the well-read fly fisherman of today.

— Glenn Law, A Concise History of Fly Fishing, 1995.[4]

Author bibliographies

edit

Author bibliographies are lists of the published works of an author. The author should be notable and have a Wikipedia article. If there are fewer than 10 works attributable to the author, they should be included in a bibliography or list of works section within the main article.

Lead

edit

The lead of an author bibliography may state something to the effect:

The Umberto Eco bibliography contains a list of works published by Umberto Eco.

Including a description of the various types and numbers of works published, their period of publication and highlights of the most prestigious works will make the lead more compelling. The William Faulkner bibliography is a good example of such a lead. Ensure that the lead for a living author follows the guidelines for biographies of living persons.

Mixed topical and author bibliographies: Some bibliographies contain both works written by the author and works about the author written by others. Leads in these cases should be as explicit as possible on the inclusion criteria for works about the author.

The Richard Nixon bibliography includes publications by former president Richard Nixon and books and articles about him and his policies.

Infobox

edit

Author bibliographies that contain {{Infobox bibliography}} allow for an image of the author and display a summary of works published. Using an infobox also makes the data within it available to DBpedia. The use of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article.

Sections and list style

edit

Generally, author bibliographies are best presented in chronological order of publication with the earliest works listed first. If the author has a comprehensive set of works spanning different topics, genres or types of publications, the use of section headings is appropriate to delineate those differences. However, within individual sections, works should be listed chronologically.

Lists of works may be in ordered in list format or wikitable format. Either is acceptable but generally should not be mixed within any given bibliography.

edit

When a book is available online through a site such as Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, or Google Books, it may be useful to provide a link to the book so readers can view it. If the book, journal or report is available online, you may include the |"url" parameter to link the entry to the online version of the work. There is no requirement either to add or remove such links. A link to a Google Book should only be added if the book is available for preview; such links will not work if the book is only available in snippet view.

White, Phillip M (October 2004). Bibliography of Native American bibliographies. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31941-9.

Using citation templates

edit

Citation templates are used to bring consistent formatting to bibliographic entries and help ensure all important bibliographic information is included in the entry. The use of citation templates is neither encouraged nor discouraged. If the editors at a bibliography choose to use them, then the following templates are the most commonly used in bibliographies:

  • {{cite book}} – the example below has a link to an online version:

Anderson, Fred (2000). Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War 1754-1766. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 978-0-375-70636-3.

For an entry in an author bibliography, use |author-mask= to avoid repeating the author's name. For example, in the above book entry, |author-mask=1 gives the result:

— (2000). Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War 1754-1766. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 978-0-375-70636-3.

  • {{cite journal}} – cite journal with a link to an online version:

Hayden, F.V. (February 1872). "More about the Yellowstone". Scribner's Monthly. III (4): 388–396.

Culpin, Mary Shivers (1994). The History of the Construction of the Road System of Yellowstone National Park 1872-1966 (Report). National Park Service.

Ellis, Warren (2011-04-11). "The Spaces Between Stars". Mulholland Books. Retrieved 2011-09-02.

For a complete listing of available citation templates, see: Category:Citation templates

Template limits

edit

The MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia has several parameters that limit the complexity of a page, thus limiting the amount of templates that can be included. When a page reaches the template limit, the most common solution for a bibliography is to convert some "citation templates" to a "manual style" citation.

Rawls, John (1971). [https://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA1 ''A Theory of Justice'']. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00078-0

Annotations

edit

Bibliography entries may be annotated to provide additional relevance and explanation of the work.[5] Annotations should be indented (by adding one colon following the asterisk in front) and cited with a reliable source.

Categories

edit

Bibliographies within Wikipedia should be added to one or more of the following categories (including many sub-categories):

To display all subcategories click on the "►":
Wikipedia bibliographies (2 C, 5 P)
Bibliographies by subject (19 C, 8 P)
Bibliographies by writer (2 C, 533 P)

Articles

edit

Recognized content

edit
edit
edit

Good articles

edit

Did you know? articles

edit

Main page featured articles

edit

Main page featured lists

edit


Reviews and assessments

edit

This table is automatically updated by Oleg Alexandrov's WP 1.0 bot.
See the log for the latest changes.

Bibliographies articles by quality and importance
Quality Importance
Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total
  FL 1 22 16 2 41
  GA 1 1
B 1 3 1 3 8
C 3 2 6 23 3 37
Start 1 3 13 76 11 104
Stub 2 6 85 1 94
List 2 34 151 434 276 897
Category 151 151
Project 7 7
Template 8 8
NA 2 31 85 118
Other 14 14
Assessed 8 44 201 669 265 293 1,480
Unassessed 27 27
Total 8 44 201 669 265 320 1,507
WikiWork factors (?) ω = 1,258 Ω = 5.16

Templates

edit

Project template

edit

{{WikiProject Bibliographies}}

 Bibliographies Unassessed
 This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bibliographies, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Bibliographies on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BibliographiesWikipedia:WikiProject BibliographiesTemplate:WikiProject BibliographiesBibliographies articles
???This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.


User template

edit

{{User Bibliographies}}

 This user is a participant of WikiProject Bibliographies.


{{User Bibliographies2}}

 This user is a participant of WikiProject Bibliographies


{{Bibliographer barnstar}}

  The Bibliographer Barnstar
{{{1}}}



Template for talk page

edit

{{stand-alone list}}


Requests for article improvement

edit
  • {{Dynamic list}}
    This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
  • {{Expand list}}
  • {{List missing criteria}}
  • {{Notability|lists}}

Alerts and watchlists

edit
 

A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

Articles for deletion

  • 19 Nov 2024 – Mayur Chauhan (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Jeraxmoira (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
  • 14 Nov 2024 – Charlotte Sartre (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Demt1298 (t · c); see discussion (6 participants; relisted)

Requested moves

Articles to be merged

Articles to be split

Recent ...

edit

Task Forces

edit

Open tasks

edit

Main tasks in order of priority:

  • Recruit members interested in supporting this project (on-going)
  • Identify and tag with {{WikiProject Bibliographies}} all stand-alone bibliographies and related lists of publications
  • Rename appropriate bibliographic articles to "Bibliography of ..." or "Author bibliography" as needed
  • Strengthen leads, inclusion criteria and sourcing per WP:NOTESAL as necessary to improve existing bibliographies
  • Add infoboxes to author bibliographies
  • Convert malformed entries to proper citation formats
  • Add ISBN numbers per MOS:WORKS#ISBNs
  • Identify potential new bibliographies and recruit editors to build them
  • Add |attention=yes to the tag template as needed.
  • Monitor Category:Bibliographies articles needing attention.
  • Monitor the recent changes lists to see which articles are being edited, work collaboratively, and revert vandalism.
  • If any bibliographies are listed in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion, add them to Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Bibliographies (see instructions on that page).

Participants

edit

Add your name and interests at the end of the list.

Further reading

edit

Compiling bibliographies is a major activity of historians and scholars. The following sources provide interesting insights into the creation and use of bibliographies.

Notes

edit
  1. ^ "About Oxford Bibliographies Online". Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  2. ^ University of New Hampshire Library, Milne Angling Collection Selected Highlights, [1]
  3. ^ Herd, Andrew Dr (2001). The Fly. Ellesmere, Shropshire: Medlar Press. ISBN 1899600191.
  4. ^ Law, Glenn (1995). A Concise History of Fly Fishing. Birmingham, Alabama: Odysseus Editions. p. 162.
  5. ^ "Writing an Annotated Bibliography". University of Toronto. Retrieved 2011-10-10.

Resources

edit
Main page: Wikipedia:Tools
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:WikiProject_Bibliographies&oldid=1258670015"