Wikisource:What Wikisource includes

Defining what is included

Documentary sources

Documentary sources are documents that are created in the course of events. These documents may range from constitutions and treaties to personal correspondence and diaries. More events are being recorded than ever before and this category includes material not historically available, such as historical phone calls, judicial proceedings, and transcriptions of military operations. Documentary sources must be added in their complete form unless a portion of the document is damaged, lost, or unintelligible. The source of these works should be noted in order to allow others to verify that the copy displayed at Wikisource is a faithful reproduction.

Analytical and artistic works

Analytical works are publications that compile information from other sources and analyze this information. Any non-fiction work which is written about a topic after the main events have occurred generally fits in this category. Artistic works include fictional books and stories as well as plays and poems. In order for an analytical or artistic work to be included in WikiSource, it must meet one of the following criteria:

• The material has been published in a medium that includes peer review or editorial controls, i.e. not self-published or vanity published.
• The material is of significant historical and/or cultural interest. (For example, Three Stories and Ten Poems by Ernest Hemingway.) Such material should be notable enough to be held by libraries or archives.

Free-content

The Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikisource, is very concerned about intellectual property rights. Not only are copyright violations prohibited, but also those works which do not allow others to freely re-use them. All publications at Wikisource must be licensed in a manner which allows commercial uses as well as the creation of derivative works. Texts which do not comply with Wikisource's copyright policy will be quickly removed. See Help:Copyright and Wikisource for general help finding copyright information.

Adding value to source texts

Although Wikisource is not a place for editors to contribute new and original works, there are several ways to make original contributions by adding value to existing publications. Entirely new compositions written by contributors are not appropriate here, though they may have a place at other Wikimedia projects such as Wikibooks.

Translations

The English Wikisource only collects texts written in the English language. Texts in other languages should be placed in the appropriate language subdomain, or at the general multi-language website. However, English Wikisource does collect English translations of non-English texts, as well as bilingual editions in which the target language of the translation is English.

For translations, the first priority at Wikisource is the contribution of previously published, public domain translations. However, in light of the fact that there are countless source texts published in other languages that might never be translated otherwise, plus the fact that new, complementary translations can improve on existing ones in many ways, Wikisource also allows user-created wiki translations.

For more information regarding translations, see Wikisource:Translations. Also see Wikisource:Copyright for copyright information pertaining to translated works.

Annotations

Previously published versions of texts with annotations are the first priority here, but these may be unavailable for copyright reasons, out-of-date, or in need of improvement. This is often especially the case for pre-modern texts (such as ancient and classical texts, and medieval texts).

Annotations may include critical data about the source text itself, footnoted commentaries about words or passages, references, sectioning and section titles, introductions, summaries, indices, pictures, et cetera. In all cases, annotations by contributors must be added in such a way that an undisturbed, "clean" source text is available, either through a technical means or by providing a parallel copy.

For more information regarding annonations, see Wikisource:Annotations.

Note that annotations of an instructional nature designed to facilitate classroom study, especially in preparation for a test, belong at Wikibooks rather than Wikisource (see Wikibooks policy on annotated texts).

Multimedia

Multimedia content added to texts can greatly improve the quality and presentation. Such content includes not only published illustrations or photographs from or about the book itself which are out of copyright, but also original contributions of audio recordings, diagrams, or other content.

Note: Multimedia contributions are subject to Wikisource:Image use guidelines.

Acknowledging precedent exclusions

Although precedent is not binding, it is worth examining of the most common types of publications which have been found unacceptable at Wikisource. These types of works will not be accepted by the community without a major shift in consensus and are eligible for precedent deletion (addition to Wikisource:Proposed deletions). Largely similar works are likely to be nominated for deletion. Everything here is meant to be based on common sense interpretations of the policy outlined above.

Original contributions

Works created by Wikisource users or otherwise not published in a verifiable, usually peer-reviewed forum do not belong at Wikisource. Wikisource is not a method for an author to get his or her works published and make them available to other people, nor is it a site to discover "new talent".

Note: There are a few exceptions to this rule, as detailed under Added value to source texts above. Also note that a Wikisource contributor may make his/her own original work available (within reason!) by placing it within his/her own user namespace.

Advertisements

Wikisource does not collect advertisements concerning any type of work that are not publications themselves. This includes information about works that have just recently been published, or are protected by copyright, or even those that are in the public domain. Advertisements can take on a number of forms, but the most common ones are written comments or external links.

Anonymous texts

Determining copyright status generally requires knowing detailed authorship information. Most source texts have an identifiable author (individuals, groups, governments), but there are texts where this information has been lost. Historical anonymous texts are appropriate at Wikisource, and some are even quite important. However, most anonymous texts should not be added to Wikisource unless they have some historical value and have no ambiguity under the copyright policy.

Evolving works

Wikisource's mission is to collect and preserve works in their published form. In light of this, works whose content is expected to constantly change over time, for the purpose of keeping the work updated, to improve the content matter of what has already been published, or to make the text more comprehensive, are excluded from Wikisource's scope.

A few examples include

1. Open-ended texts where the author relies upon cooperative efforts by many contributors to finish and improve the work;
2. Compilations where there are many sources of a particular text, and/or the text is to be constantly updated as more relevant information is found and added;
3. Lists (see also below).

Reference material

Wikisource does not collect reference material unless it is published as part of a complete source text. Such information has not been previously published, is often user-compiled and unverified, and does not fit the goals of Wikisource.

Some examples of these include

1. Lists;
2. Mathematical constants (such as digits of pi);
3. Tables of data or results;
4. Cryptographic material;
5. Source code.

Note: Reference data that is provided as part of larger publication (tables, appendices, etc.) is perfectly acceptable.

See also

• What is Wikisource?
• Copyright policy
• Wikisource:Deletion policy