User:JYolkowski/sandbox

''This page is currently a proposal; do not implement it just yet. However, feel free to [ edit this page] to help to improve it.

A lack of references is a significant problem in a lot of articles and is one of the biggest roadblocks towards turning Wikipedia into a high-quality work. Well-referenced articles attempts to remedy this deficiency to a certain extent by recognising articles that are well-referenced, as well as their creators.

Criteria
An article can be designated as a well-referenced article if it meets the following criteria:


 * It is longer than a stub
 * It contains no material that appears to violate Wikipedia's three core content policies Verifiability, No original research and Neutral point-of-view
 * All works used in its creation appear to be listed under the ==References== heading
 * Inline citations, in any reasonable format, are provided for all:
 * Claims that may be controversial
 * Negative statements about a living person (see Biographies of living persons)
 * Direct quotations
 * Claims that could easily be mistaken for original research
 * Other statements which editors agree require in-line citations
 * It contains no citation needed tags or indications of factual dispute
 * It does not rely excessively on primary sources
 * The sources used appear to be sufficiently reliable to support the claims made

Not all articles will require inline citations in order to meet these criteria; it is possible that some articles can be written that consist entirely of common knowledge. However, most articles will require some in-line citations.

Designating and undesignating articles
The process for designating or undesignating articles as well-referenced is entirely unbureaucratic.

To designate an article as well-referenced: to that user's talk page, which produces:
 * to the article's talk page, which produces:
 * If

While not entirely prohibited, you should avoid designating an article to which you have contributed significantly, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

To undesignate an article,

If there is dispute as to whether then this issue should be discussed on the article's talk page.