The assessment department of the Military history WikiProject focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's military history articles. The resulting article ratings are used within the project to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work.
The assessment system used by the Military history WikiProject to rate article quality consists of two parallel quality scales; one scale is used to assess regular prose articles, while the other is used to assess
lists and similar non-prose articles. The progression of articles along these scales is described in greater detail below.
The first stage of an article's evolution is called a stub. A stub is an extremely short article that provides a basic description of the topic at best; it includes very little meaningful content, and may be little more than a dictionary definition. At this stage, it is often impossible to determine whether the topic should be covered by a prose article or a list, so this assessment level is shared between the two scales.
A stub that undergoes some development will progress to the next stage of article evolution. An article at this stage provides some meaningful content, but is typically incomplete and lacks adequate references, structure, and supporting materials. At this stage, it becomes possible to distinguish between prose articles and lists; depending on its form, an article at this level will be assessed as a Start-Class prose article or a List-Class list.
As the article continues to develop, it will reach the C-Class level. At this stage, the article is reasonably structured and contains substantial content and supporting materials, but may still be incomplete or poorly referenced, but not both. As articles progress to this stage, the assessment process begins to take on a more structured form, and specific criteria are introduced against which articles are rated.
An article that reaches the B-Class level is complete in content and structure, adequately referenced, and includes reasonable supporting materials; overall, it provides a satisfactory encyclopedic presentation of the topic for the average reader, although it might not be written to the standard that would be expected by an expert. Articles at this stage commonly undergo
peer review to solicit ideas for further improvement. B-Class is the final assessment level that can be reached without undergoing a
formal review process, and is a reasonable goal for newer editors.
After reaching the B-Class level, an article may be submitted for assessment as a good article. Good articles must meet a set of
criteria similar to those required for the B-Class assessment level, and must additionally undergo the
formal good article review process. This assessment level is available only for prose articles; no comparable level exists for lists.
A good or B-Class article that has undergone additional improvement may be considered for the A-Class assessment level. An A-Class article presents a complete and thorough encyclopedic treatment of a subject, such as might be written by an expert in the field; the only deficiencies permissible at this level are minor issues of style or language. To receive an A-Class rating, a candidate article must undergo the
formal military history A-Class review process. The A-Class rating is the highest assessment level that may be assigned by an individual WikiProject; higher assessment levels are granted only by Wikipedia-wide independent assessment processes.
The featured article and featured list ratings represent the pinnacle of article evolution and the best that Wikipedia has to offer; an article at this level is professional, outstanding, and represents a definitive source for encyclopedic information. Featured status is assigned only through a thorough
independent review process; this process can be grueling for the unprepared, and editors are highly advised to submit articles for
A-Class review prior to nominating them for featured status.
The following tables summarize the criteria used to assess articles at each level of the
quality assessment scale. In addition to the criteria, the tables list the assessment process used at each level and provide an example of an article previously assessed at that level.
A
featured article exemplifies Wikipedia's very best work and is distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation, and sourcing. In addition to meeting the
policies regarding content for all Wikipedia articles, it has the following attributes.
It is:
well-written: its prose is engaging and of a professional standard;
comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context;
well-researched: it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature; claims are
verifiable against high-quality
reliable sources and are supported by inline citations
where appropriate;
stable: it is not subject to ongoing
edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured article process; and
a lead: a concise
lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections;
appropriate structure: a substantial but not overwhelming system of hierarchical
section headings; and
consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using footnotes—see
citing sources for suggestions on formatting references. Citation templates are not required.
A1. The article/list is consistently referenced with
an appropriate citation style, and all claims are
verifiable against
reputable sources, accurately represent the relevant body of published knowledge, and are supported with specific evidence and external citations
as appropriate.
A2. The article/list is comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral and focused on the main topic; it neglects no major facts or details, presents views
fairly and without bias, and does not go into unnecessary detail.
A3. The article/list has an appropriate structure of hierarchical headings, including a concise
lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections, and a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents.
A4. The article/list is written in concise and articulate English; its prose is clear, is in line with
style guidelines, and does not require substantial copy-editing to be fully MoS-compliant.
A5. The article/list contains
appropriately licensed supporting visual materials, such as images or diagrams with succinct captions, and other media, where relevant.
it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with
the layout style guideline;
reliable sources are
cited inline. All content that
could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose);
Prose. It features professional standards of writing.
Lead. It has an engaging
lead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria.
Comprehensiveness.
(a) It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing at least all of the major items and, where practical, a complete set of items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about the items.
(c) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements for
stand-alone lists; does not violate the
content-forking guideline, does not largely duplicate material from another article, and could not reasonably be included as part of a related article.
Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful,
section headings and
table sort facilities.
Style. It complies with the
Manual of Style and its supplementary pages.
(a) Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting,
tables, and
colour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked.
Stability. It is not the subject of ongoing
edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.
A1. The article/list is consistently referenced with
an appropriate citation style, and all claims are
verifiable against
reputable sources, accurately represent the relevant body of published knowledge, and are supported with specific evidence and external citations
as appropriate.
A2. The article/list is comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral and focused on the main topic; it neglects no major facts or details, presents views
fairly and without bias, and does not go into unnecessary detail.
A3. The article/list has an appropriate structure of hierarchical headings, including a concise
lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections, and a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents.
A4. The article/list is written in concise and articulate English; its prose is clear, is in line with
style guidelines, and does not require substantial copy-editing to be fully MoS-compliant.
A5. The article/list contains
appropriately licensed supporting visual materials, such as images or diagrams with succinct captions, and other media, where relevant.
The article has a meaningful amount of good content, but it is still weak in many areas, and may lack a key element; it has at least one serious element of gathered materials, including any one of the following:
A particularly useful picture or graphic
Multiple links that help explain or illustrate the topic
A subheading that fully treats an element of the topic
Multiple subheadings that indicate material that could be added to complete the article
The individual review process is used for all assessment activities up to and including the B-Class level. In this process, any editor may review an article against the listed criteria and assign the corresponding quality rating themselves.
Article authors are free to assess their own articles under this process. However, by convention, the final assessment for a B-Class rating is typically left to an independent editor; requests for an independent assessment may be made at the assessment request page.
The peer review process is not used to evaluate an article for a particular assessment level directly; rather, it is a forum where article authors can solicit ideas for further improvements. Peer review is most often requested when an article is at the C-Class or B-Class level; articles at lower levels are typically so incomplete that a meaningful review is impossible, while articles at higher levels go through more formal review processes.
By convention, military history articles are typically listed in the history section of the main peer review request page; however, articles may be listed in other sections if their primary topic lies in another field.
The good article nomination process is an independent review mechanism through which an article receives a "good article" quality rating. The process involves a detailed review of the article by an independent examiner, who determines whether the article meets the
good article criteria.
Full instructions for requesting a good article review are provided on the good article review page.
The military history A-Class review process is the most thorough and demanding assessment of article quality done by the Military history WikiProject. An article that undergoes this process must be reviewed by at least three independent examiners, each of whom must agree that the article meets all of the
A-Class criteria.
Full instructions for requesting an A-Class review are provided on the A-Class review page.
The featured article candidacy and featured list candidacy processes are an independent, Wikipedia-wide quality assessment mechanism; these processes are the only way an article can receive a "featured" quality rating. The process involves a comprehensive review of the article by multiple independent examiners, all of whom must agree that the article meets the
featured article or list criteria.
Full instructions for submitting a featured article or list candidacy are provided on the corresponding candidacy page. Editors are advised to carefully review the submission instructions; failing to follow them correctly may cause the submission to be rejected.
Instructions
An article's quality assessment is generated from the class parameter in the {{WPMILHIST}} project banner on its talk page:
{{WPMILHIST|class=}}
The following values may be used for the class parameter to describe the quality of the article:
The class parameter should be assigned according to the
quality scale below.
The following classes may be used for non-article pages; many are automatically generated by the template when it is placed on a page of the corresponding type:
The rating system allows the project to monitor the quality of articles in our subject areas, and to prioritize work on these articles. It is also utilized by the
Wikipedia 1.0 program to prepare for static releases of Wikipedia content. Please note, however, that these ratings are primarily intended for the internal use of the project, and do not necessarily imply any official standing within Wikipedia as a whole.
2. How do I add an article to the WikiProject?
Just add {{WPMILHIST}} to the talk page; there's no need to do anything else.
3. Someone put a {{WPMILHIST}} template on an article, but it doesn't seem to be within the project's scope. What should I do?
Because of the large number of articles we deal with, we occasionally make mistakes and add tags to articles that shouldn't have them. If you notice one, feel free to remove the tag, and optionally leave a note on the talk page of this department (or directly with the person who tagged the article).
4. Who can assess articles?
Any member of the Military history WikiProject is free to add—or change—the rating of an article. Editors who are not participants in this project are also welcome to assess articles, but should defer to consensus within the project in case of procedural disputes.
5. Can I assess articles that I have written or contributed significantly to?
For the most part, yes—in fact, you are encouraged to do so. B-Class assessment, by convention, is generally undertaken by an independent editor (requests can be made
here), and A-Class promotion requires the consensus of multiple independent reviewers. However, if your article falls within the Stub- to C-Class range, by awarding the rating yourself you are helping to prevent the assessment requests process becoming overloaded.
6. How do I rate an article?
Check the
quality scale and select the level that best matches the state of the article; then, follow the
instructions below to add the rating to the project banner on the article's talk page. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the
assessment scale.
7. Can I request that someone else rate an article?
Unfortunately, due to the volume of articles that need to be assessed, we are unable to leave detailed comments in most cases. If you have particular questions, you might ask the person who assessed the article; they will usually be happy to provide you with their reasoning.
9. Where can I get more comments about an article?
The
peer review process can conduct more thorough examination of articles; please submit it for review there.
10. What if I don't agree with a rating?
You can list it in the
section for assessment requests below, and someone will take a look at it. Alternately, you can ask any member of the project to rate the article again. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the
assessment scale.
11. Aren't the ratings subjective?
Yes, they are somewhat subjective, but it's the best system we've been able to devise. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to let us know!
12. What if I have a question not listed here?
If your question concerns the article assessment process specifically, please refer to the discussion page for this department; for any other issues, you can go to the
main project discussion page, or contact the
project coordinators directly.
Please note that this section is transcluded from a separate requests page, which you may wish to add to your watchlist.
Editors can self-assess articles against the
five B-class criteria(FAQ) up to and including C-Class. If you have made significant improvements to an article against one or more of B-class criteria and would like an outside opinion on a new rating for it, please feel free to list it below, specifying which criteria you have worked on. If you feel unable to assess against one or more of the B-class criteria, please say so when posting. Requests for formal A-Class review should be made
at the review department. Please consider entering articles you have improved in the
military history article writing contest.
More Italian Army units to assess. The five cavalry regiment articles and three army aviation regiment articles are all now C-class, but in my view could be B-class: