CZ:How to convert Wikipedia articles to Citizendium articles

The importation of articles copied from other sources, in particular from other Internet encylopedias such as Wikipedia, is not allowed.

The only exceptions to this general rule are

• articles written originally almost entirely by the Citizen who imports them and who, in addition, is also an active contributor, and
• specific articles that are explicitly accepted by the Editorial Council.

Of course, any available source—including Wikipedia—may be used in a professional manner to find information and inspiration.

This policy was passed by the Editorial Council on December 12th, 2010 as motion PR-2010-013.

The advice outlined below has been made partially obsolete by this policy.

Should you upload that Wikipedia article to Citizendium?

• Is the Wikipedia article reasonably good? In other words, to create an expert-approvable article, in your judgment, it should be more efficient to edit the article than start over from scratch.

• Do you actually intend to do significant work on the article sometime in the next day (or week at least)? If not, don't upload it until you actually want to start working on it (significant work means, at a minimum, to put your article into the context of other Citizendium articles by the subpages system, particularly the definitions and Related Articles.

If the answers to these are "yes", then first save the copy from Wikipedia without making any changes. This will let others see what changes you've made by looking at the page history.

Then, check the "Content is from Wikipedia?" box, which appears just below the edit summary unless

1. if you copy only what you personally wrote. If you are the sole author of the version of the article that you are importing, then you need not check the "Content is from Wikipedia?" box. In that case, please place the WPauthor template at the top of the talk page (see also WPauthor2 template).
2. if the Wikipedia material is an unchanged copy from a third source (like Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition (1911); make sure you cite that third source; Wikipedia does not get any credit.

Article accuracy

If you are thinking about importing content from Wikipedia, do some fact-checking to ensure that the content is reliable. General reference works such as the Encyclopedia Britannica are a good way to check basic facts about a subject. Specialized reference works are better, though. The standard reference works of a discipline are what experts themselves consult, and tend to reflect current scholarship much better than general works.

Improving articles stylistically

When you rewrite Wikipedia articles:

• Make sure that the articles are well-written and unified, following a coherent, well-organized narrative, not grab-bags of unintegrated facts.

• Use engaging language, not the sleep-inducing prose that some people seem to think is required for encyclopedia articles. Avoid stilted or hackneyed expressions.

• Remember your audience; our goal is to express, not merely impress. Articles on Citizendium are written for the educated person who needs an introduction to the topic--and not for the author to catalog very impressively everything he knows on the topic. Bear in mind that your audience is university-level, unless your topic itself requires a higher-level treatment (cannot be understood "at the undergraduate level").

Also see Differences in style, approach and tone

Improving article mechanics

We follow many of Wikipedia's conventions of mechanics, such as bolding titles--but not all. In particular, we are removing many templates, virtually all categories, and all interwiki links.

Templates

Templates should help the user rather than distracting the user.

Delete many template messages--particularly the ones that are for contributors and are self-referential. This includes timing-related messages, expansion requests, and all Wikimedia sister projects.

Other templates to delete include: requesting sources, deletion, disputes and warnings, maintenance, cleanup, and lists.

If you do retain a template in an article you're working on, for an infobox for example, then upload the template from Wikipedia. We will not be uploading the entire Wikipedia template namespace.

Many infobox templates and navigational templates need to be completely revisited. Many are useful, but many are not.

Categories

Delete all categories not specifically added for the Citizendium.

Interwiki links

Delete all of these, but keep internal links to other articles in English.

Images

Please upload all usable images from Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons along with all licensing information. Do not upload images that do not have clear licensing data. Do not upload images (and delete links to these) that were created by someone who on Wikipedia was using a pseudonym. We must be able to locate the original uploader of all media, and a real name is a minimum requirement. You might be able to get the person to reveal his or her name for our use here on Citizendium; you can attempt to contact the person on Wikipedia.

See also

• We aren't Wikipedia
• Introduction to CZ for Wikipedians

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