Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Maya Pencheva


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. I originally closed this as "no consensus", but it was pointed out to me that the article cites zero third-party sources (or indeed any sources), and judging by this discussion, there don't seem to be any obvious ones that could be cited. The article is therefore unverifiable (WP:V), which, particularly in the case of a WP:BLP, makes deletion mandatory.  Sandstein  18:23, 14 February 2018 (UTC)   Sandstein   18:23, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Maya Pencheva

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[See below for relistings]

Probably not very far below the bar: a professor at a major Bulgarian university, who has briefly held the local equivalent of the post of vice-chancellor (just short of WP:NPROF #6) and has published a decent amount (by local standards), but without having the kind of impact that would confer notability (according to google scholar her most cited work has received 13 citations). If the article is kept, it won't end up being very flattering to the subject: her major book has turned out to have featured some rather massive plagiarism. – Uanfala (talk) 04:43, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. – Uanfala (talk) 04:45, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Bulgaria-related deletion discussions. – Uanfala (talk) 04:45, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Women-related deletion discussions. Thsmi002 (talk) 02:07, 26 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Keep. I find it strange that this article which was created in 2007 should suddenly be put up for deletion now. The cited essay on plagiarism by Lilia Ilieva dates from 2009; it is certainly not a new discovery. I have looked it through quite carefully and see that it is not confined to plagiarism but is critical in general of Pencheva's understanding of the linguistic phenomena she discusses in her book. Without having the full text of Pencheva's work (and especially its footnotes), it is difficult to assess the importance of Ilieva's paper. By contrast, Pencheva herself is considered to be one of Bulgaria's foremost experts in linguistics. While Ilieva has published a number of books, she does not appear to have gained anything like the importance of Pencheva. I would point out, for example, that Pencheva's Ahmed Dogan and the Bulgarian ethnic model (which has little or nothing to do with linguistics) has been a best seller in Bulgaria and widely read in English, commenting as it does on the achievements of Ahmed Dogan, one of Bulgarian's most successful politicians. She has also held the post of professor in a field which is certainly not one of major significance in Bulgaria. The citations in the article and the works she has written certainly provide the level of general notability required for inclusion. The article should be kept but could usefully be expanded.--Ipigott (talk) 17:03, 27 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Ahmed Dogan and the Bulgarian ethnic model was authored by Ivan Palchev; Maya Pencheva is only credited as the translator into English . All the "citations" in the article are links to pages on the university website that verify she's held such and such positions. There's no coverage of her, the only thing I could find is the plagiarism paper linked above, but being accused of plagiarism doesn't make one notable. – Uanfala (talk) 18:34, 27 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Well, I've browsed through the first 70 or so results of a google web search, and the only content about her that I could find is one paragraph in a news report about her election as a vice-dean and a few sentences about her dismissal (allegedly for political reasons) . One of her books is held in 43 libraries according to worldcat, but it seems to be an introductory textbook on the history of English, so that's not really a high number. – Uanfala (talk) 16:14, 28 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Keep -- I'm willing to give this article the benefit of the doubt. Pencheva is a late career academic and it's difficult to look for sources in Bulgarian. Worldcat is biased towards English-language sources / Western libraries, so I don't think it would present the full picture of Pencheva's holdings. K.e.coffman (talk) 18:53, 28 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I've looked for sources specifically in Bulgarian, and the paucity of material to be found is already reported above. – Uanfala (talk) 19:08, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

Relistings
 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  Sandstein   08:22, 30 January 2018 (UTC)  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Delete. Pencheva has published substantially in English, as the article shows, but GS shows very low citations for her overall body of work. I would take issue with K.e.coffman's insinuation that WorldCat is too biased to be considered here. It lists 34 of her works, including under various ethnic spellings of her name, but none of the holdings are above mediocre double-digits. I think the more parsimonious explanation is simply that her work hasn't had much impact. I'm glad to change positions if new info comes to light. Agricola44 (talk) 16:10, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Also noting that the majority of these 34 works are ones where Pencheva is either the translator or an editor. – Uanfala (talk) 18:02, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, T. Canens (talk) 00:15, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

I thought that if she's considered notable in her homeland, we might have a channel to search for more info. But bg:WP had no entry under either her full name, Майя Стефанова Пенчева, or without her patronymic, Майя Пенчева. But the name wasn't even recognized:
 * Вероятно имахте предвид: май пенчев

for which Google Translate returns
 * You probably meant: mother Penchev

--Thnidu (talk) 20:12, 11 February 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.