Wikipedia:Peer review/Samarium/archive1

Samarium


I've listed this article for peer review because I want to get a lanthanide to FA-class. This article seems promising, but would probably need a lot of improvement to get to FA-class, especially in the Chemical properties, Isotopes, and Biological role and precautions sections.

Thanks, 141Pr 08:57, 29 October 2022 (UTC)


 * STANDARD NOTE: I have added this PR to the Template:FAC peer review sidebar to get quicker and more responses. When this PR is closed, please remove it from the list. Also, consider adding the sidebar to your userpage to help others discover pre-FAC PRs, and please review other articles in that template. And, since you are still seeking your first successful FAC, I suggest seeking a FA mentor and start reviewing FACs now to build goodwill among the FAC regulars. Z1720 (talk) 01:23, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
 * I have started improving the Isotopes section. I think that we just need more consistent referencing and more information in the sections you mentioned. InterstellarGamer12321 (talk) 18:50, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Little notes
Not qualified to comment on science but just possible formatting improvements:


 * Add alt tags - assume you’re a blind person using text to speech to read the article - what information would you need to "see" the image? - alt tags are also displayed when images don’t load for some reason.
 * 141Pr 17:20, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Use citation templates wherever possible — helps with visual consistency, metadata and networking etc.
 * 59 - cite web template, archive url in case goes dead someday
 * 141Pr 08:08, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
 * 70/71 - if in French language add | language=fr element to template
 * 141Pr 17:20, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * 75 - add OCLC or LCCN number to old books if you can find
 * 87 - cite journal - DOI 10.2113/gscanmin.40.6.1649 if you just put the DOI in the “automatic” tab of the cite tool it should do it for you
 * 141Pr 17:20, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * 88 - cite journal — DOI 10.1134/S1075701511070191
 * 141Pr 17:20, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * 102 - cite patent template
 * 141Pr 08:08, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
 * 103 - cite web template
 * 141Pr 08:08, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
 * 112 - archive url in case goes dead someday

Cheers! jengod (talk) 19:32, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

ComplexRational comments
At first glance, this article has a solid content foundation, though certain sections could be expanded further, and the prose needs some work before it's ready for FAC. I'll do a more complete review in the coming days. Here are some initial considerations, mostly from two or three sections. I hope you don't mind if I nitpick, seeing as every detail potentially goes under the magnifying glass at FAC:


 * – assuming this is referenced to Shi & Fort 1985, are there any more recent developments?
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * – common stylistic convention is to write "third-lowest".
 * 141Pr 16:47, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * – wikilink doped, and maybe explain what it means since it's not common knowledge.
 * 141Pr 17:33, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * .  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 17:24, 12 March 2023 (UTC)


 * – "recent" is pretty vague; a more objective description would be better.
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * – this transition feels pretty abrupt.
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 19:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * – rephrase to "that exhibit an oxidation state of +2" or "that exhibit the +2 oxidation state".
 * 141Pr 16:47, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * section Chalcogenides – check whether [40] references everything before it, otherwise additional inline citations are needed.
 * 141Pr 17:33, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 19:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)


 * section Isotopes – there should be more than one sentence about samarium-146 as an extinct radionuclide (and any searches for it as a primordial nuclide).
 * – no comma is needed after 148Sm, and these isotopes exclusively (not primarily) alpha decay to neodymium.
 * Fixed this. I'm leaving it here as an example of some of the prose work needed before FAC. Complex / Rational  19:45, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Check that the half-lives and count of isomers are up to date – NUBASE2020 and possibly more recent articles in the literature are the go-to sources for this.
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * Check if any isotopes lighter than 128Sm have been reported or whether there are any unknown isotopes (i.e., discovery year and experimental half-life missing in NUBASE) in the given range – I've discovered a few gaps for some elements in a more careful review. I already updated on the heavy end with this year's article going up to 168Sm.
 * In fact, 128Sm has not been reported (per NUBASE2020). I corrected the article to reflect this. Complex / Rational  19:45, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
 * A brief mention of the drug samarium (153Sm) lexidronam might also be appropriate since it deals with nuclear properties. Of course, it's described in greater detail later in the article, though I'm wondering whether the paragraph beginning with would be better included in the isotopes section.


 * – thought to, by whom?
 * – change the hyphen to an en dash (MOS:DASH).
 * 141Pr 16:47, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * – usage of words such as "unique" and rare" in this context is not very descriptive or up to FAC standard. These should be described with comparisons and numbers (e.g., rarity in parts per million/billion).
 * 141Pr 17:33, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * – I wonder if any of these could be expanded upon; this listing suggests the existence of more research and applications worth describing.

More to come later, though I think a fair bit of improvement to prose (copyediting; criteria 1a) and completeness (criteria 1b and 1c) is required before this has a shot at FAC. Complex / Rational 00:32, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
 * – either approximate values or exact values should be consistently used.
 * Overall, there are lots of short paragraphs, which would be better expanded when appropriate or consolidated.
 * 141Pr 17:33, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I see this most prominently in the isotopes and applications sections. As a reference, you can look at how some relatively recent element FAs are structured, such as fluorine, lead, and thorium. Complex / Rational  00:32, 28 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for taking up the review. (I had been taking a wikibreak earlier) I will try to complete as many of these as possible over the next few days. 141Pr 16:47, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * By the way, I have color-coded my comments above where purple means that I have completed that task, and green is an update, and orange is a question. 141Pr 17:33, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * No hurry with the review, and I like the color scheme so that it doesn't get too difficult to read through walls of text. However, I feel that we should focus on fleshing out content before copy editing prose, so would you prefer that I focus my subsequent comments on additions, layout, and references? Complex / Rational  02:54, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Sure, that is fine. I'll carry on with what is listed so far. 141Pr 08:08, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Second pass – focus on content
Here are a few more spots I see for improvement, though I haven't done enough of my own research to accurately judge where expansion is needed. Apologies for the slow reviewing; I've been busy with other work on WP and IRL the last week. Will try to add more in the next few days.
 * For physical properties, try to focus each paragraph on a specific aspect: bulk appearance/properties, different atomic structures, magnetism, superconductivity. This might also lead to some overlap and relocating information between this section and the following one on chemical properties.
 * 141 Pr  19:34, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 19:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)


 * I recommend using convert for values so that, for instance, temperatures are given in Celsius and converted by the template to Fahrenheit.
 * 141Pr 16:09, 6 January 2023 (UTC)


 * Anywhere where only one unit is used, the earliest example being . Complex / Rational  04:18, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * – too technical, expand upon this in layperson's terms
 * – I think it would be beneficial to write the exact respective values, and also to spell out Bohr magneton on its first occurrence.
 * 141Pr 16:40, 6 January 2023 (UTC)


 * – would prefer a more neutral term than "remarkable"
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * – should say "halide anion" or "halogen atom"
 * 141Pr 11:18, 6 January 2023 (UTC)


 * – most up-to-date sources give it as stable, so I wouldn't give equal weight to reports of its radioactivity. I definitely support the inclusion of a numerical lower bound for its half-life (if nothing more specific, NUBASE gives $2$ years).
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 17:24, 12 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Talk a bit more about neutron absorbing properties of samarium isotopes in the isotopes section, while continuing to discuss specific applications later on.
 * – more context might help here (e.g., if this is relevant for Sm's cost), or alternatively, just cut this part out entirely.
 * 141Pr 16:05, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
 * It reads better now, though I need to think on this one a bit more. Complex / Rational  04:18, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * – saying "the Ural Mountains in Russia" is equally correct and more neutral.
 * 141Pr 16:47, 6 January 2023 (UTC)


 * ref 81 is dead, so switch the archive URL.
 * 141Pr 18:54, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
 * I typically stick to cite web or similar templates; that's probably the easiest way to get this working. Complex / Rational  04:18, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 * 141 Pr  08:19, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

Complex / Rational 02:38, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
 * – when, and by whom?
 *  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 19:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Sorry for the inactivity on this article for the past few weeks. I have fixed some of these issues today, and would probably be freer in the following few weeks to fix more.  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 18:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I have fixed most of the issues in this peer review, is it OK for me to close it?  141 Pr  {{{sup|contribs}}/Best page} 19:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I'll take a quick look through the article again, but my time to do extensive editing has greatly diminished as of late – I apologize for not being more active with this review. If I don't post any more comments within the next week, go ahead and close it. Complex / Rational  00:48, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Been a week, closing.  141 Pr  {contribs} 19:49, 8 April 2023 (UTC)