Wikipedia:WikiProject Alternative views

Motivation
Wikipedia's policy is to write articles from a neutral point of view describing not just the dominant view, but significant alternative views as well, fairly, proportionately, and without bias. Because alternative views lack the widespread acceptance enjoyed by dominant views and often suffer from a lack of coverage in verifiable and reliable sources, fewer editors know or care about them, and this imbalance puts alternative views at risk of neglect, misrepresentation, and a level of coverage not in keeping with their relative notability. This project aims to counter that tendency by facilitating collaboration among interested editors. This should all be done while following our basic content principles. It should not be an excuse to correct supposed suppression from the mainstream orthodoxy, to engage in original research, or to use sources that aren't verifiable and reliable. We are not here to correct real-world coverage. We are here to report real-world coverage. We are not here to counterbalance real-world sources. We are here to balance according to real-world sources.

Scope
Welcome to WikiProject Alternative Views! This project aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of significant "alternative views"&mdash;those theories, hypotheses, conjectures, and speculations which, though notable, lack widespread acceptance, and which may challenge a "dominant view" which does have such acceptance. The project encompasses alternative views in every field, from the sciences to the humanities.

Goals
The project's goal of improving Wikipedia's coverage of significant alternative views breaks down as follows.


 * create articles about notable alternative views
 * work to make existing articles about alternative views factual and neutral
 * prevent articles about notable alternative views from being deleted
 * ensure that significant alternative views which are notable in the context of other articles receive adequate, factual, neutral representation in those articles
 * assist in the formulation and clarification of policies, guidelines, and other project-space infrastructure relating to alternative views
 * provide a support group and help forum for editors who are interested in improving Wikipedia's coverage of alternative views, but who may be unfamiliar with Wikipedia's rules and conventions

Policies and guidelines
Editors working to improve Wikipedia's coverage of alternative views should respect the boundaries set by Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. In a nutshell, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a publisher of original thought. To be included here, information about alternative views must be notable and verifiable, and should not receive undue weight. Proper implementation of the project's goals hinges on a good understanding of Wikipedia's notability guidelines as applying to minority views or hypotheses, a point addressed in detail at Fringe theories.

Articles edited by this project should adhere to all guidelines, including WP:POVFORK and WP:MEDRS.

Assessment
This project has an assessment department. If you would like to contribute to or have questions regarding this part of the project please visit this page.


 * Quality operations: A bot-generated daily log which lists articles Reassessed, Assessed and Removed.
 * Popular pages: List of top articles with the most frequent views, updated monthly.


 * See all subpages of WikiProject Alternative views here and here.

Relevant pages and policies

 * Category:WikiProject Alternative Views
 * WikiProject Alternative Views/Articles - a list of the articles which have been defined as being of specific relevance to this project
 * Category:WikiProject Alternative Views articles
 * Category:Alternative Views articles needing expert attention
 * Template:WikiProject Alternative Views - project banner
 * Template:User WikiProject Alternative Views - project userbox
 * Category:WikiProject Alternative Views participants


 * WikiProject Alternative Views/Article alerts
 * WikiProject Deletion sorting/Conspiracy theories
 * WikiProject Deletion sorting/Paranormal
 * Reliable sources (medicine-related articles) - relates to sources in alternative medicine articles
 * Fringe theories - guidance for articles about alternative views
 * Undue weight
 * What Wikipedia is not
 * Exceptional claims require exceptional sources

Related projects

 * WikiProject Alternative education
 * WikiProject Alternative medicine
 * WikiProject Chiropractic
 * WikiProject Paranormal
 * WikiProject Skepticism