Wikipedia:Don't build the Frankenstein

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Shortcuts WP:DBTF WP:FRANKENSTEIN WP:FRANKENPAGE WP:FRANKIE

This page in a nutshell: Be careful to verify, when adding references to an article to establish notability, that the subject referenced is actually the one the article is about, and not someone or something else with the same name.

Building the Frankenstein is a variation of original research. Generally, it is a good faith error by Wikipedia editors attempting to find as many sources as possible about a subject. Often, in this situation, the information presented by the sources is not actually about the same subject, and when mistakenly combined, creates a Frankenstein's monster (often mistakenly called a "Frankenstein" which makes this analogy more interesting).

Example:

• "John Doe played Johnny in the movie A." (source: Newspaper X)
• "John Doe played Carl in the movie B" (source: Newspaper Y)

Based on that, an editor may write:

• "John Doe played Johnny in the movie A<ref>NewspaperX</ref> and played Carl in the movie B.<ref>Newspaper Y</ref>

The information may be correct, but there is a possibility of mistaken identity with, for instance, John Doe from movie A being a different person than the one from the movie B. It would be accurate if a source (Newspaper Z) writes "John Doe, who played Johnny in the movie A, will be in the movie B as Carl".