User:Rifleman 82/Article Format

Infobox
WikiProject Chemicals strongly recommends the use of chemical infoboxes for the following reasons:
 * If basic (often numerical) data is included in the article text, the readability of the article is reduced.
 * They reflect a certain consensus as to what data is appropriate for an encyclopedic article.
 * They promote a common visual style among Wikipedia articles on a given subject area.
 * They are well supported by the MediaWiki software (unlike HTML tables), and easily adapted (by individual editors) to the different needs of different articles.

The use of chembox is recommended. There are three other chemboxes which are deprecated: chembox simple inorganic and chembox simple organic are good for short articles (stubs and slightly-more-than-stubs), and chembox is more appropriate for full-length articles.

To include a chembox in an article:
 * 1) Open chembox and select the appropriate chembox
 * 2) Copy and paste the text of the template into the top of the article
 * 3) Fill out the data as required
 * 4) Save

For formatting reasons, the code for the infobox should be at the very beginning of the source code.

Sections
A suggested layout is as follows:


 * 1) Introduction (lead)
 * 2) Natural occurrence and anthropogenic sources
 * 3) Preparation
 * 4) Uses (Applications) and/or reactions
 * 5) History
 * 6) Safety
 * 7) Toxicology
 * 8) See also
 * 9) References
 * 10) External links
 * 11) Categories
 * 12) Interwiki links

The sections on natural occurrence, preparation, uses, and history can be shuffled to reflect the relative importance of these sections. The order may be changed as appropriate, but similar sections should be placed adjacent to each other to maintain a good "flow" to the text.

Introductory paragraph

 * See also: Lead section

History
A history of the discovery and isolation of this chemical. If there is a noteworthy disagreement/ controversy about the proposed chemical structure, such as benzene, it can be included here in some detail. The first instance of this compound being report should be cited, as should any subsequent refinements in structure and composition.

Occurrence
A summary of the where this compound is found, either as a pure or impure form. I.e. natural sources.

If this compound is generated by human or biological activities, such as CO2 or methane, these should be noted as well.

Chemical properties
If the connectivity, electronic configuration, reactivity are of interest, they may be listed here.

Physical properties
Unusual physical properties not listed in chembox can be described here.

Preparation
All articles about chemical compounds should include one or more methods of preparation: as appropriate. Even articles about chemicals which are normally extracted from minerals (e.g. molybdenum disulfide) should normally have a laboratory route to the same compound.
 * laboratory-scale preparation
 * industrial production
 * biosynthesis

Uses and/or reactions
Describe large-scale uses/major uses of this compound. Try to avoid wp:Proseline. Reactions can either be integrated into the uses, or can be split off into a separate section describing the general reactions it undergoes.

If there are very major uses for this compound, it can be a section (not subsection) of its own.

Safety
The hazards associated with a chemical compound are an integral part of the description of that compound.

Two main rules:
 * The description of hazards should avoid speculation. This is partly an extension of Wikipedia NPOV policy, but not entirely. There is no need to include a section which merely states "all chemical compounds should be treated with the utmost precaution": such a section tells the reader nothing. If there are no known (or reasonably suspected) hazards, there is nothing for Wikipedia to say.
 * The description of hazards should avoid hyperbole. The role of Wikipedia is to give balanced and accurate information, to allow its readers to reach their own conclusions.

Descriptions of hazards should, as far as possible, be based on published, peer-reviewed sources (which should, of course, be cited at the appropriate point in the article). A list of resources for chemical safety information is given in the external links section of these guidelines.

Toxicology
This should be a subset of safety.