Wikipedia:List of policies and guidelines

The following is a comprehensive list of policies and guidelines. For a quick overview, see Simplified ruleset; for descriptive directories see List of policies, List of guidelines and Manual of Style/Contents.

Terminology
Wikipedia's rules and best practices are specified in two types of documents:

Green check.svg Policy
A policy documents a rule or standard with wide acceptance among Wikipedia editors that all users should normally follow.

Blue check.svg Guideline
A guideline is a set of best practices that are supported by the consensus of Wikipedia editors. Editors should attempt to follow guidelines, though they are best treated with common sense. Occasional exceptions may apply. Naming conventions are considered guidelines.

Five Pillars
The Five Pillars are the five fundamental principles of Wikipedia:

List
Large-print links are broad, fundamental policies and guidelines that apply throughout Wikipedia.

Normal-print links are policies and guidelines that are general in scope but may apply to more specific situations.

Small-print links are policies and guidelines that are specific to a subject area or process on Wikipedia.

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 * style="line-height:2;" | Ignore All Rules – What Wikipedia Is Not
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Green check.svg Content policies
Biographies of Living Persons – Image Use Policy – Wikipedia is Not a Dictionary
 * style="line-height:2;" | Neutral Point of View – Verifiability – No Original Research
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Blue check.svg Content guidelines
Autobiography – Accuracy Dispute – Content Forks – External Links – No Disclaimers – Non-Free Content – Non-Free Use Rationale Guideline – Non-US Copyrights – Offensive Material – Public Domain – Spam – Spoiler Days of the Year – Fringe Theories – Identifying Reliable Sources (Medicine) – Indic Transliteration – Logos – No 3D Illustrations – Record Charts – Scientific Citation Guidelines – Wikipedia Is Not For Things Made Up One Day
 * style="line-height:2;" | Citing Sources – Do Not Create Hoaxes – No Full Texts of Primary Sources – Reliable Sources – Plagiarism – Patent Nonsense
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Blue check.svg Editing guidelines
As Of – Broad-Concept Article – Categories, Lists, and Navigation Templates – Copying within Wikipedia – Reviewing Good Articles – Hatnote – Page Blanking – Overcategorization – Preparing Images for Upload – Red Link – Redirect – Set Index Articles – Soft Redirect – Spellchecking – Subpages – Updating Information – User Categories Categorizing articles about people – Categorizing Redirects – Content Assessment – Edit filter – Extended Image Syntax – In The News: Recurring Items – Overcategorization: User Categories – People by Year – Primary Topic Definition
 * style="line-height:2;" | Article Size – Be Bold – Categorization – Disambiguation – Understandability – Stub – Summary Style
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Blue check.svg Notability guidelines
Academics – Astronomical Objects – Books – Events – Films – Geographic Features – Music – Numbers – Organizations and Companies – People – Sports – Web
 * style="line-height:2;" | Notability
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Blue check.svg Naming conventions
Capitalization – Country-Specific Topics – Definite or Indefinite Articles – Events – Geographic Names – Numbers and Dates – Lists – People – Plurals – Technical Restrictions – Use English Aircraft – Ancient Romans – Armenian – Astronomical Objects – Australian Roads – Baseball Players – Belgium: Castle, Country House, Château and Kasteel – Belgium: Alternate Language Names – Books – Broadcasting – Brussels – Burmese – Law Enforcement Agency Categories – Chemistry – Chinese – Clergy – College Football – Comics – Companies – Fauna – Films – Flora – UK Parliament Constituencies – Government and Legislation – Greek – Hebrew – Ice Hockey – Indic – Irish Categories – Korean – Languages – Latter Day Saints – Macedonia – Manuscripts – Mongolian – Music – New Zealand – Norse Mythology – Operas – Ethnicities and Tribes – Mining – Political Parties – Ships – Sports Teams – Sportspeople – Stations in Poland – Television – Tibetan – Royalty and Nobility – U.S. State and Territory Highways – UK Stations – Video Games – West Bank – Swiss Municipalities – Writing Systems
 * style="line-height:2;" | Article Titles – Category Names – File Names
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Blue check.svg Style guidelines
Content: Accessibility – Biography – Linking – Self-References to Avoid – Words to Watch – Wikimedia Sister Projects
 * style="line-height:2;" | Manual of Style (Contents)

Formatting: Abbreviations – Capital Letters – Dates and Numbers – Pronunciation – Spelling – Text Formatting – Titles of Works

Layout: Layout – Lead Section – Lists (Lists of Works – Road Junction Lists – Stand-Alone Lists) – Tables – Trivia Sections

Images: Images – Captions – Icons

Arts – Anime and Manga – Comics – Film – Music (Music Samples – Record Charts – Stringed Instrument Tunings) – Novels – Television – Video Games – Visual Arts – Writing About Fiction – History – Military History – Blazon – Legal – Legal – Trademarks – Regional – Canada – China – France – Hawaii – India – Ireland – Japan – Korea – Philippines – Poland – Singapore – Religion – Islam – Latter Day Saints – Science – Chemistry – Computer science – Mathematics – Medicine – TaxoBox Documentation – Sports – Cue Sports – Snooker – Wikipedia Content – Disambiguation Pages – Infoboxes
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Green check.svg Conduct policies
Clean Start – Dispute Resolution – Edit Warring – No Personal Attacks – Ownership of Content – Sockpuppetry – Username Policy
 * style="line-height:2;" | Civility – Consensus – Editing Policy – Harassment – Vandalism
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Blue check.svg Behavioral guidelines
Appealing a Block – Canvassing – Changing Username Guidelines – Courtesy Vanishing – Deceased Wikipedians Guidelines – Do Not Disrupt Wikipedia to Illustrate a Point – Gaming the System – Please Do Not Bite the Newcomers – Responding to Threats of Harm – Reviewing – Rollback – Signatures – Spam Blacklist – Linking to External Harassment
 * style="line-height:2;" | Assume Good Faith – Conflict of Interest – Disruptive Editing – Etiquette – Talk Page Guidelines
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Green check.svg Deletion policies
Attack Page – Oversight – Proposed Deletion of Biographies of Living People – Revision Deletion
 * style="line-height:2;" | Deletion Policy – Criteria for Speedy Deletion – Proposed Deletion
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Blue check.svg Deletion guidelines
Deletion Guidelines for Administrators – Speedy Keep
 * style="line-height:2;" | Deletion Process
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Green check.svg Procedural policies
Arbitration Committee: CheckUser and Oversight – Bot Policy – CheckUser – Global Rights Policy – IP Block Exemption – Page mover – Open Proxies – Volunteer Response Team
 * style="line-height:2;" | Policies and Guidelines – Arbitration Policy – Wikimedia Policy


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Green check.svg Enforcement policies
Discretionary Sanctions – Banning Policy
 * style="line-height:2;" | Administrators – Blocking Policy – Protection Policy
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Green check.svg Legal policies
Child Protection – Copyright Violations – Libel – Non-Free Content Criteria – Paid-contribution disclosure – Reusing Wikipedia Content
 * style="line-height:2;" | Copyrights – No Legal Threats – Terms of Use
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Blue check.svg Project content guidelines
Userboxes – WikiProject Council Guide
 * style="line-height:2;" | Project Namespace – User Pages
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Blue check.svg Template guidelines
High-Risk Templates – Substitution – Talk Page Templates
 * style="line-height:2;" | Template Namespace
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Blue check.svg Reference Desk guidelines
General – Medical advice
 * style="line-height:2;" | Reference Desk
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