Wikipedia:Article inclusion criteria

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Every article in Wikipedia must adhere to the policies

A decision to include a standalone article about a given subject matter should consider the following factors:

Based on all available sourcing that exists about the topic, can an article that satisfies the above policies be created?

For example, if the best article on a given subject is a negative biography about a living person wholly sourced to marginally reliable sources, it should not have a standalone article.

Would the inclusion of the topic inside another standalone article provide better context?

Given that the inclusion of such content would not cause undue weight to the parent article, this would provide more complete context. (Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign § Other initiatives and Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign § International trip, for example)

Can related topics provide better context?

Given that the resulting article would be not be too unwieldy, and the relationships between the related topics can be better appreciated than if they were each a separate page (as at Music of the Final Fantasy VII series), standalone pages for each of the related topics should not be created, but instead into combined into one article.

A subject's perceived importance has no bearing on the matter. Articles on controversial topics such as fringe theories and politics would require higher quality sourcing than mundane topics such as highways and villages. Related essays may provide guidance on applying these criteria to specific subject matters, such as those on events and organizations.