This step-by-step guide brings together some of the best resources to help you get started in Wikipedia. It is based off of a guide originally created by User:LoriLee for middle and high school students to edit Wikipedia. If they can do it, you can!
If you would like more general information on why you should contribute to Wikipedia, please see GLAM:Contribute
Get started
Create your account
Decide on a username that is not your institution's real name.
Note that sharing an account is not allowed in Wikipedia, so you should not create an account for your organization as a whole.
Click on the blue link "Create Account" in the top right corner.
Click on the blue link "Create One" in the sign in box.
Fill out the information on the page (email is not necessary) and click the "Create Account" button.
Your username will now appear in red in the top right corner.
Wikipedia tutorial
Begin this tutorial to get you started on basic editing, formatting, and citation guidelines. If you learn better in interactive tutorials, we recommend doing the gamified Wikipedia Adventure
Introduction
Editing: After you finish reading this tab, be sure to Try Editing in the Sandbox as they suggest.
Formatting: After you finish reading this tab, try to add bolding, italics & headings in the Sandbox.
Wikipedia Links: After you finish reading this tab, try to add some links and categories in the Sandbox.
Citations: After you finish reading this tab, try out using the reference markup code in the sandbox.
Creating a user page will be your first time editing in Wikipedia!
The “Creating a userpage” document will walk you through the steps involved in setting up your userpage.
Use the WikiMarkup Cheat Sheet as you begin your edits.
Make sure you're signed in.
Click on your user name, which is a red link, in the top right corner.
Click the “Edit” tab (located between “Read” and “View History”) to make several edits to your userpage.
State your relationship with the institution you work for and that your are working with WP:GLAM. If you intend to edit about other topics in Wikipedia feel free to mention that, but please don't use your Userpage as a personal webhost or to promote your employer. (See WP:USERPAGE about what userpages are for and what they are not for.
Create a sandbox
A sandbox is a subpage of your userpage that can be used for drafting articles.
A "sandbox" is a place to experiment and draft content, related to your work here in Wikipedia. They are not live articles but your personal workspace.
When you are logged-in, look in the upper-right hand corner and you will see a link to your sandbox.
When you click on this link, it will bring up the Edit box. You can paste {{User sandbox}} in and click the big, blue Publish button, which will create your sandbox page and add a header, stating that this is your sandbox.
That page will always be your "main" sandbox, but can also create additional pages in your userspace:
Edit your user page and type the following: [[User:You/Name]]. Be sure to exchange "You" for your username, which is what will make it be a subpage of your own userpage and replace "Name" with whatever you want to call the new page.
Click Publish to save your edits and to take you back to your user page. The link will be red, which means that the page does not exist yet.
Click on the link, and it will bring up a screen that says "Wikipedia does not have a user page with this exact name."
Type something in the Edit box and click Publish. This will create the page, and make it available online.
Please be aware that all pages in your userspace are subject to our userpage policy and are solely for doing work related to Wikipedia. The WP:COPYVIO and WP:BLP policies apply everywhere in Wikipedia, including your userspace.
Your first articles
In general:
look for independent sources that comply with the reliable sources guideline that give significant discussion to the topic, not just passing mentions. Start with great sources. Think New York Times not "some blog" and not the company website, and think New England Journal of Medicine, not Biology and Medicine. (The latter is published by OMICS Publishing Group which is the most often discussed predatory publisher . Be aware that predatory publishers exist, and don't use articles in journals they publish; you can check publishers at Beall's list.) Also beware of churnalism sources that look like they independent but are lightly edited press releases. Once you have seen a few of these they are very easy to spot.
Look at the sources you found, and see if you have enough per WP:Golden rule to even go forward. If you don't, you can stop right there.
Read the sources you found, and identify the main and minor themes to guide you with regard to WP:WEIGHT - be wary of distortions in weight due to WP:RECENTISM
Be mindful of the manual of style in all things (WP:MOS) but also go look at manual of style guideline created by the relevant WikiProject, to guide the sectioning and other subject-specific style matters (you can look at articles on similar topics but be ginger because WP has lots of bad content). Use these project style guides to create an outline. (For example, for biographies, the relevant project is WP:WikiProject Biography and for companies, the relevant project is Wikipedia:WikiProject_Companies/Guidelines.
Create the blank article page following the process described at articles for creation for your first few articles. (If you don't know how to create a new article directly.... maybe wait until you do, to try, and just rely on AfC for awhile :) )
Start writing the body, based only on what is in the sources you have, and provide an inline citation for each sentence as you go. (See note about formatting citations below) Set up the References section and click "preview" plenty as you go, so you can see how it is going. See WikiMarkup for help with markup, and for citations, click on the Cite button at the top of the Edit window to add citations.
Make sure you write in neutral language. The most rigorous way to do this is to use no adjectives at your first go-round (!) and add them back only as needed. Also write simply, in plain English. Not informally, but simply. Try to write so that anybody with a decent education can understand.
When you are done, write the lead and add infobox, external links, etc (for external links, please be sure to follow WP:ELNO - we only do one "personal" external link, so don't include a person or institution's own website and their facebook page and their twitter feed etc. Just one.)
Images are great to include!
Check the Commons for images already uploaded of the topic.
Click on the image to bring up its page in Commons.
Click "Use this file" next to the Wikipedia symbol, located above the image.
Copy the top option, which will look like [[File:Baby Louie oviraptorid.jpg|thumb|Baby Louie oviraptorid]].
Click on the Edit tab of the draft page.
Add an edit summary such as "Added image" and click Publish changes.
Consider adding banners to the Talk page, joining the draft article to relevant Wikiprojects, which will help attract editors who are interested and knowledgeable to help work on the article. (You can look at the Talk pages of articles on similar topics, to see what WikiProjects are involved in them). If your GLAM relationship creates a conflict of interest, note that on the Talk page as well.
The completed work should have nothing unsourced (because the sources drove everything you wrote, not prior knowledge or personal experiences); there should be no original research nor promotional content in it.
If you are using AFC, submit the draft article for review by clicking the "submit your draft" button that was set up when you created the article. You will get responses from reviewers, and you can work with them to do whatever is needed to get the article ready to be published.
If you are creating an article about an object in your institution's collection, you can use the GLAM Article Template as a way to automatically add headings and an infobox to your draft and article.
Copy the following text and paste it into the new draft page: {{subst:GLAM Article}}
Publish the page and include a note in the Edit summary such as "GLAM template". You'll notice that the page now has new headings.
Edit the draft again to see the template code, which includes suggestions in brackets that look like <!-- this-->. Do not put your content in between these brackets or it will not appear when you save and publish it. The information in the brackets is just there to remind you what to put where.
Remove all of the suggestions and brackets (<!-- content-->) after you've added your research and filled out the infobox. Only the research, references, and WikiMarkup that you added should remain (in addition to the headings and Infobox).
After the article is created in mainspace
Please be aware that everything in Wikipedia (except pages in Userspace) can be edited by anyone. Neither you nor anyone else "own" the article. Wikipedia articles can always be added to! They are never actually "done."
Find any appropriate categories to add to the article. In the Wikipedia search box type Category: followed by whatever category topic you are searching for. If the category exists, add it. (Example: Dinosaurs, Archaeology, Public Art).
On the article's main page click Edit.
Add the category code (for example:[[Category:The Children's Museum of Indianapolis]]) to the bottom of the article. These should appear on the article's main page (not the Talk Page).
It is preferred that you include the most specific category possible (for example: "Glass artworks" instead of "artwork".)
Link the article: Go to other Wikipedia articles that mention the topic and if a wikilink would add value to that article, add a wikilink to the article.
Did You Know: If the article is new, or you expanded the content of an article by five (known as "five times expanded"), the article is eligible for the Did You Know column on the Wikipedia Main Page.
Article Assessment: It useful to have the relevant WikiProject assess the article - see article assessment. You can post a note at the talk page of the relevant WikiProjects asking for independent editors to assess it.
Help
Use these resources to find help anytime, anywhere.
Starting a sandbox article tutorial (2 min 11 sec)
Article creation tutorial (7 min 50 sec)
Copyright licenses involved in uploading files (3 min 28 sec)
HotCat and categories explanation (5 min 43 sec)
Ready to find more resources?
Find a listing of guides and outreach materials relevant to the U.S. cultural sector on the GLAM Bookshelf. Resources include handouts, presentations, Wikipedia how-to guides, and videos.
