Reliable publications include established newspapers, academic journals and books, textbooks, and other published sources with reputations for accuracy and fact-checking.
Unreliable sources include blog posts and other self-published works, press releases, and social media posts.
In order for a source to be considered verifiable, other editors should be able to consult the source.
Is the source independent of the subject?
Is the source connected in any way to the subject? This is especially important when writing biographies or about organizations.
For example, if you were writing a biography, sources like the person’s webpage or personal blog would not be considered independent.
Is the source primary or secondary?
Primary sources include first-hand accounts, autobiographies, and other original content.
Wikipedia allows limited use of primary sources, but typically only for straightforward, descriptive statements of facts, and only if they are published and verifiable without requiring specialized knowledge.
Secondary sources should be the main basis for a biography on Wikipedia.
If you’re working on a topic related to medicine or psychology, ensure that your sources follow these special guidelines.
If you’re creating a new article, consider the following:
Ensure that your topic meets Wikipedia’s notability guidelines.
In order for a topic to meet the notability requirement, you must be able to identify 2-3 sources that are reliable, verifiable, and independent of the subject you’re writing about.
Finding sufficient sources to establish notability can be especially hard when writing about people or organizations.
Sources that are not independent of the subject might be useful additions, but don’t count towards the notability requirement.
Wikipedia has developed special guidelines for writing about living persons. Please follow these carefully.
Wikipedia has a series of guidelines for writing about different categories of people, such as academics and artists. If you’re trying to create a new entry about a living person, please look at these carefully.
If you’re not sure whether a source is reliable, ask a librarian! If you have questions about Wikipedia’s sourcing rules, you can use the Get Help button below to contact your Wikipedia Expert.
Jamie Bronstein. “Big Trouble in Little Texas The Chicano Movement in Southern New Mexico, 1968–1977.” New Mexico Historical Review 95, 3 (2020). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol95/iss3/3
Peer-Reviewed Source discussing chicano movement in southern new Mexico
Escobar, Edward J. “The Dialectics of Repression: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Chicano Movement, 1968-1971.” The Journal of American History, vol. 79, no. 4, 1993, pp. 1483–514. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2080213. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025.
Article discussing the clashes between the chicano movement and the los angeles police department
Chávez, Ernesto. “Chicano/a History: Its Origins, Purpose, and Future.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 82, no. 4, 2013, pp. 505–19. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2013.82.4.505. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025.
General information about chicano history
Regua, Nannette. “WOMEN IN THE CHICANO MOVEMENT: Grassroots Activism in San José.” Chicana/Latina Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2012, pp. 114–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23345421. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025.
Chicanas source.
Examples:
Luke, Learie. 2007. Identity and secession in the Caribbean: Tobago versus Trinidad, 1889–1980 Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.
This is a book published by a university press, so it should be a reliable source. It also covers the topic in some depth, so it’s helpful in establishing notability.
Galeano, Gloria; Bernal, Rodrigo. 2013. “Sabinaria , a new genus of palms (Cryosophileae, Coryphoideae, Arecaceae) from the Colombia-Panama border”. Phytotaxa.
This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, so it should be a reliable source. It covers the topic in some depth, so it’s helpful in establishing notability.
Baker, William J.; Dransfield, John 2016. “Beyond Genera Palmarum: progress and prospects in palm systematics”. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.
This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, so it should be a reliable source for a specific fact. Since it only dedicates a few sentences to the topic, it can’t be used to establish notability.
