Template:Edit COI/Instructions

For submitters

 * 1) To request an edit to an article where you have a conflict of interest, go to the talk page of that article, and start a new section at the bottom of the page. Put  at the top of the new section, below the new heading. Use  if you are unfamiliar with the COI guidelines and Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Use  for significant additions and re-writes.
 * 2) Below the  template, add the particulars of your proposed edit.
 * 3) Reliable sourcing that verifies suggested content is the lifeblood of Wikipedia articles. Almost any edit you suggest should be accompanied by citation to a reliable source – and often by a secondary and independent source, rather than a primary source. For details of how to cite sources, please see Help:Referencing for beginners and Help:Introduction to referencing/1. For a more complex treatment, see Citing sources. Please note whether or not the sources you are referencing appear in the article already, and if so, format accordingly.
 * 4) Explain what this article is about as not every editor will be familiar with the subject. Copying the first sentence from the article, for example "Meera Dewan is a social-issue documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi, India." is often enough.
 * 5) Indicate if information should be added to the article or subtracted from it.
 * 6) Describe the requested changes in detail. This includes the exact proposed wording of the new material, the exact proposed location for it, and an explicit description of any wording to be removed, including removal for any substitution. Include the sources (per above) that support the edits that you are suggesting; if you do not, your request will be denied. Be specific: "add X", "delete Y", "replace X with Y". If the rationale for a change is not obvious (particularly for proposed deletions), explain. Sign your post using four tildes.
 * 7) Other than short quotes, clearly indicated to be copied material by the use of quote marks, followed immediately by an inline citation, all content must be written entirely in your own words, with the cited sources used to verify the information, but not the words and sentences used. Almost any content you find online or elsewhere is copyrighted (even if you find no associated copyright symbol), and its copying into Wikipedia is illegal copyright infringement and, separately, unethical plagiarism. Superficial modification by changing a word here and there from the original material is not sufficient to avoid copyright infringement. These principles are true even if you own the copyrighted material, because we cannot use that previously written material unless it is released under a suitably free copyright license (or into the public domain).
 * 8) The proposed edit must comply with Neutral point of view, and in particular Due and undue weight, a section of our neutrality policy. The Wikipedia article must reflect, both in content and tone, the body of high-quality, independent literature that exists on the subject in question. Ensure that your writing does not sound like an advertisement.
 * 9) Do not upload a photo with a logo added to it. See WP:WATERMARK policy.
 * 10) It is better not to propose major rewrites of articles or sections of articles where you have a conflict of interest. See WP:COI. The article must include any negative material or controversies found in reliable sources. Good reviewers will look for such omissions. Do not ask that negative material be removed if it is well-sourced and accurate.

For reviewers

 * 1) Do not insert major re-writes or controversial requests without clear consensus. When these are requested, ask the submitter to discuss the edits instead with regular contributors on the article's talk page. You can use.
 * 2) Please check the suggested content for copying from existing sources as an initial task – copyright infringement is a pervasive problem and it is not only important that we don't host such material, but it often leads to significant additional work when not caught early. One way to search for them is to copy and paste into a search engine such as Google (between quotation marks) a limited but unique portion of the suggested text, and try a few such snippets from each paragraph. See also this tool. Also check the sources provided for the accompanying citations for copying from them (if sources are not provided, that will often be a separate basis to deny the requested edit).  If the submission contains material that has been copied from elsewhere and the source is not released under a suitable free license or into the public domain, immediately decline the request as a copyright violation. The talk page itself may need to be cleaned of the infringements from the requested edit, though this is not nearly as important as doing so in articles – and not becoming the tool of infringement by placing requested edits that are violations without checking. If you need to clean up an infringement, the copyvio section at the "quick fail" reviewing instructions at Articles for Creation may be useful by analogy (click "show" in the pink bar).
 * 3) Reviewers must make sure that the proposed edit does not violate NPOV, and in particular UNDUE. The Wikipedia article must reflect, both in content and tone, the body of high-quality, independent literature that exists on the subject in question, not only the sources the submitter has offered.
 * 4) Be on the look-out for cherry-picking, for the omission of material or sources, for the misrepresentation of a source's tone, and for the use of source material out of context. Be vigilant about omissions and tone when a paid editor proposes a major rewrite of a contentious article or section of an article.
 * 5) If the edit is reverted, it is by definition controversial, so do not revert back.
 * 6) Copyright attribution: Not only should you check for copyright problem with the suggested edit, per above, but if you implement a request you need to provide copyright attribution, since you are making an edit as a proxy for someone else. This is done by attributing the changes/additions to the editor who made the request, with their username hyperlinked. The best and easiest way to do this is in the edit summary accompanying your implementation. A suggested edit summary form to do so: " Content changes/additions per edit request on talk page by  User:Name of user  . "