Wikipedia:WikiProject Politics/Libertarianism/Sourcing Guide

This page is part of the Libertarianism project and is currently a draft.

It provides a guide to editors of Libertarianism related articles for appropriate reliable sourcing.

It is modelled off the proposed examples: Anarchism referencing guidelines and WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration/Links to reliable sources discussions

For discussion of specific sources which have been judged for reliability, and verified against particular statements, see the WikiProject Libertarianism Annotated Bibliography.

Central Principles
Wikipedia policy remains the core requirement. This guideline extends policy, and other guidelines, and provides a basis for Libertarianism specific articles in that context.

The most stringent sourcing guidelines apply to Libertarianism related articles. Where this guideline is more lenient, and another sourcing guideline with stricter requirements apply–such as guidelines relating to Military History, Medical Reliable Sources, or Biographies of Living Persons–those source guidelines overrule this guideline.

Reliable Sources and High Quality Reliable Sources
WikiProject Libertarianism's articles aim to reflect the scholarly opinion available in high quality reliable sources: sources published by University Presses and Academic Presses, Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journals, Fully Peer Reviewed Conference Papers at Scholarly Conferences, and, Dissertations Accepted and Made Available by Research Universities. Where such sources are unavailable, or do not exhaust the encyclopaedic literature on a Libertarianism topic, WikiProject Libertarianism makes use of the best available Reliable Sources.

In particular, WikiProject Libertarianism seeks to define scoping and the extent of the literature on a topic by reference to High Quality Reliable Sources in the first instance, and in the second instance by reference to the best available Reliable Sources.

The concept of a Partisan source
Partisan sources are publishers who take an explicit stand on the issue of libertarianism. Partisan sources may be reliable in certain cases, explored below. However, when dealing with a Partisan source, different standards of evaluation of reliability apply.

Reliably published opinion pieces in scholarly presses
Scholarly and academic publications should be considered the best source of reliable information on Libertarianism.

SELF, FRINGE and PRIMARY

 * 1) Self published, including subsidy published and presses which publish Author's works on a fully funded basis, should not be used for matters of fact.
 * 2) Fringe sources should not be used for matters of fact. Editors should be familiar with WP:LIB/SOURCES's exploration of the concept of Fringe in relation to Libertarianism articles before labelling a source as FRINGE.
 * 3) Primary sources should not be used for matters of fact. Editors should be familiar with WP:LIB/SOURCES's exploration of the concept of Primary sources in relation to Libertarianism articles before labelling a source as PRIMARY.

Academic sources which fail to be High Quality Reliable Sources
Academic sources which were not peer reviewed should be treated with a measure of suspicion. This suspicion relates to the easy access that scholarly authors have to producing high quality reliable sources. This does not render a source as unreliable, but it often indicates that SELF or PRIMARY may apply.

Scholarly monographs and chapters in scholarly books

 * 1) A scholarly monograph, or chapter in a scholarly book, is not affected by the nature of an academic press as Partisan. Care should be taken to determine if a Partisan press claiming academic status is genuinely an academic press; however, the assumption is that a Partisan press claiming academic status is genuinely an academic press.

Peer reviewed journal articles

 * 1) Journals should be checked against Ulrich's for peer reviewed status. Where this is unavailable, the journal's "About" or "Editorial Policy" or "Guidelines for Authors / Submissions" should be checked for mention of peer review.
 * 2) Journal articles must be listed in the Table of Contents under the section "Articles" to be peer reviewed
 * 3) Exceptions hold where: the article in question is described as peer-reviewed in a footnote.
 * 4) The article contains a footnote thanking reviewers.
 * 5) The article is listed in the Table of Contents as being in a section other than "Articles" which is noted in the Journal's front matter as being peer reviewed (for example "Review Articles," being extensive literature reviews of a field, may be noted as peer reviewed in a particular journal)
 * 6) A peer reviewed journal is assumed by default to be genuinely peer reviewed, even if the journal is Partisan or its press is Partisan.