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If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for coverage in Wikipedia.

  • "Significant coverage" addresses the topic directly and in detail, so that no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than a trivial mention, but it does not need to be the main topic of the source material.
    • The book-length history of IBM by Robert Sobel is plainly non-trivial coverage of IBM.
    • Martin Walker's statement, in a newspaper article about Bill Clinton,[1] that "In high school, he was part of a jazz band called Three Blind Mice" is plainly a trivial mention of that band.
  • "Reliable" means that sources need editorial integrity to allow verifiable evaluation of significance, per the reliable source guideline. Sources may encompass published works in all forms and media, and in any language. Availability of secondary sources covering the subject is a good test for noteworthiness.
  • "Sources" should be secondary sources, as those provide the most objective evidence of notability. There is no fixed number of sources required since sources vary in quality and depth of coverage, but multiple sources are generally expected.[2] Sources do not have to be available online or written in English. Multiple publications from the same author or organization are usually regarded as a single source for the purposes of establishing significance.
  • "Independent of the subject" excludes works produced by the article's subject or someone affiliated with it. For example, advertising, press releases, autobiographies, and the subject's website are not considered independent.[3]
  • "Presumed" means that significant coverage in reliable sources creates an assumption, not a guarantee, that a subject merits inclusion in Wikipedia. A more in-depth discussion might conclude that the topic actually should not be covered here—perhaps because it violates what Wikipedia is not, particularly the rule that Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information.
  1. ^ Martin Walker (1992-01-06). "Tough love child of Kennedy". The Guardian.
  2. ^ Lack of multiple sources suggests that the topic may be more suitable for inclusion in an article on a broader topic. It is common for multiple newspapers or journals to publish the same story, sometimes with minor alterations or different headlines, but one story does not constitute multiple works. Several journals simultaneously publishing different articles does not always constitute multiple works, especially when the authors are relying on the same sources, and merely restating the same information. Similarly, a series of publications by the same author or in the same periodical is normally counted as one source.
  3. ^ Works produced by the subject, or those with a strong connection to them, are unlikely to be strong evidence of noteworthiness. See also: Wikipedia:Verifiability#Questionable sources for handling of such situations.