Wikipedia:Reliable sources

For a list of sources that are talked about often, see Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources.

This page is a guideline on the Simple English Wikipedia. Many editors agree with the ideas on this page. It is a good idea to follow it, but it is not policy. You can change the page as needed, but please use the talk page to make sure that other editors agree with any big changes.

Shortcuts: WP:RS WP:RELY WP:RELIABLE

This page in a nutshell: Articles should be based on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy.

One of the problems that Wikipedia is most criticized for is that it is not always reliable. This is true, since anybody can change most articles and add anything they like. Sometimes bad changes stay in place for a long time. Wikipedia guidelines such as Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:No original research and the additional restrictions for living people at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons have been made to help prevent this.

These guidelines are there for two reasons:

• They help make sure that information which is added is true, or at least that it is not made up on the spot.
• They show us that a topic has received attention from other people, and this helps show and argue notability.

However, many sources are not suitable for use in Wikipedia because they are not reliable.

This is a guideline about the types of sources which are reliable. Wikipedia articles should use reliable, third-party, published sources. (An article is a page in the main namespace. Most other pages, such as Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, do not need sources.) These sources can be in any language, not just English or Simple English.