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WikiProject Bibliographies

Bibliographies in library
Shortcut	WP:BIB
Category	WikiProject Bibliographies
Portals	Books Contents/Lists
Parent project(s)	Books,Lists,Academic Journals
Project banner template	{{WikiProject Bibliographies}}
Helps organise child projects?	Yes
Has goals?	Yes
Assessment	Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies#Reviews and assessments

A bibliography, the product of the practice of bibliography, is a systematic list of books and other works such asjournalarticles. Bibliographies range from "workscited" lists at the end of books and articles to complete, independent publications. As separate works, they may be in bound volumes or computerisedbibliographic databases. Alibrary catalog, while not referred to as a "bibliography", is bibliographic in nature.

Bibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. Bibliographies are a primary tool in academic research for students, faculty and researchers.^[1] Within Wikipedia, well crafted bibliographies provide editors with a readily available list of sources that can be used to support creation and expansion of articles on related topics.

Within Wikipedia, bibliographies arespecialized lists of books, journals and other references important to the topic of the bibliography. For example:Bibliography of classical guitar is a list of works important to the study ofClassical guitar. Bibliographies may also be a listing of published works of an author. For example:Jimmy Carter bibliography is a list of works about or authored byJimmy Carter.

The primary goal of this project is to improve bibliographies and expand their scope within Wikipedia by establishing a consistent article structure; by ensuring bibliographies follow Wikipedia policies, guidelines and manuals of style; and by identifying topics needing bibliographic coverage and encouraging editors to build those bibliographies.

As of16 December 2025, there are1,251 articles within the scope of WikiProject Bibliographies, of which44 arefeatured and1 aregood articles. This makes up 0.02% of the articles on Wikipedia, 0.38% of all featured articles and lists, and 0% of all good articles. Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are3,224 pages in the project.

Bibliographies areWikipedia articles. They must comply withfundamental principles such asNeutral point of view, andpolicies such asNo original research andVerifiability.

Bibliographies areLists and must comply with the following list-related guidelines and manuals of style:

• the notability guideline for stand-alone lists.
• the manual of style for lists in general.
• the manual of style for stand-alone lists.

Bibliographies of living authors must comply with theguidelines for biographies of living persons.

A Bibliography of topic article must meet Wikipedia'sguideline for stand-alone list notability which is quoted here for clarity.

Notability of lists (whether titled as "List of Xs" or "Xs") is based on the group. A list topic is considered notable if it has been discussed as a group or set by independent reliable sources, per the above guidelines; notable list topics are appropriate for a stand-alone list. The entirety of the list does not need to be documented in sources for notability, only that the grouping or set in general has been. Because the group or set is notable, the individual items in the list do not need to be independently notable, although editors may, at their discretion, choose to limit large lists by only including entries for independently notable items or those with Wikipedia articles.

For a bibliography on a topic to be notable, the members of that bibliography should be discussed as a group in reliable sources. This discussion may take the form of a published standalone bibliography on the topic, a bibliography in a published reliable source on the topic or recommendations for further reading on the topic published in a reliable source on the topic.

For the articleBibliography of fly fishing there are reliable sources that demonstrate notability of the bibliography for each of the source types above.

• Hampton, Jack (2008). Ken Callahan and Paul Morgan (ed.).Hampton's Angling Bibliography-Fishing Books 1881-1949. Ellesmere, UK: Medlar Press.ISBN 9781899600878. – A published bibliography of angling literature, first published in 1947.
• Bark, Conrad Voss (1992). "Bibliography".A History of Fly Fishing. Shropshire, UK: Melvin Unwin Books. pp. 175–181.ISBN 1873674031. – Source contains a comprehensive bibliography of fly fishing related books.
• Gingrich, Arnold (1974). "Annotated List of Some Choice Fishing in Print Since 1935".The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature. New York: Winchester Press. pp. 311–336. – Source contains an annotated list of recommended reading on fly fishing.

This section contains aWikiProject advice page onstyle, consisting of the advice or opinions of one or moreWikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest. An advice page has the status of anessay and is not a formalWikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community.

The following subsections recommend a consistent naming convention for bibliographies and a preferred structure for both topical and author bibliographies. The structures recommended are designed to enhance the usefulness of bibliographies for Wikipedia users as well assist editors in ensuring bibliographies meet Wikipedia policies, guidelines and the manual of style.

The policy withinWikipedia:Article titles applies to the titles of Wikipedia bibliographies. This project seeks to establish consistency in naming bibliographies within the encyclopedia and recommends the following:

• A bibliography on a topic such asbiology should be namedBibliography of biology. BecauseBibliography isa recognized type of list in Wikipedia, an explicit use of the word is preferable to titles such asList of important books about biology andPublications on biology. Words likeimportant,influential,landmark,notable andpopular in the title are difficult to defend without significant explanation and should be avoided.
  • Topical bibliographies where the topic is a person should be named:Bibliography of works on John Doe. This eliminates confusion withJohn Doe bibliography which lists works by John Doe (an author bibliography).
  • Topical bibliographies where the topic is a non-person should be named: Bibliography of topic
• A bibliography of an author such asMark Twain should be namedMark Twain bibliography.
• Author bibliographies that contain other types of published works such as music (discography), or film (filmography) in addition to published literature should be calledWorks of Author,Works of Rambhadracharya for example.

The topic or author of a bibliography should be notable and have an article in Wikipedia.

Topical bibliographies are lists of relevant books, journals and other references on a specific topic. The lead of a topical bibliography should establish thenotability of the bibliography by citing at least two sources that demonstrate that relevant books, journals and other references on a specific topic have been discussed as a group.

When creating a new bibliography, include a concise lead with explicit criteria for what entries are – and are not – suitable. The inclusion criteria are for the benefit of both readers and other editors; they provide part of the context for the list and make a case for its notability. They should be tied tightly to the title of the bibliography and its organization. Avoid indiscriminate criteria – some of the most popular challenges to bibliographies or lists of works are based on the Wikipedia policiesWikipedia is not a directory andWikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Well-defined context helps counter those challenges.

• Explicit lead example:

  Bibliography of Colditz Castle is a list of works aboutColditz Castle, its history as POW camp Oflag IV-C, the attempts to escape Oflag IV-C and many prisoners memoirs.

(The lead leaves no doubt as to what constitutes a valid bibliography entry.)

• Slightly indiscriminate lead example:

  Bibliography of Prem Rawat and related organizations lists bibliographical material regardingPrem Rawat and organizations likeDivine Light Mission,Elan Vital andThe Prem Rawat Foundation.

(The inclusion of the words "and related organizations" in the title and "and organizations like ..." in the lead create a partially indiscrimate inclusion criteria since "related organizations" and "organizations like" are not fully defined. Although literature about or authored byPrem Rawat is clearly within the scope of the bibliography, its not clear what kind of relationship to Prem Rawat is necessary to include other literature. )

• Indiscriminate lead example:

  List of books about risk is a list of books about risk issues.

(The concept ofrisk is not defined in the lead nor is it linked to the article onrisk. Even if it were, the article reveals thatrisk is such a broad and variable term that it would be difficult to discriminate works about risk from works not about risk. This is a classic case of an indiscriminate lead.)

Most topical bibliographies will be single articles or lists with enough entries to warrant a separate list, yet not so many that a summary style is required. If there are fewer than 10 possible entries in the bibliography, then those entries should be included in aFurther reading section in the topic article.

In each section, bibliography entries should be organized either as abulleted list orwikitable in chronological or alphabetical (by author) order. Bulleted lists and wikitables should not be mixed within the bibliography. Chronological entries are most suitable for bibliographies on topics with a long history of literature on the topic. Chronological entries allow the user to see a progression on works on the topic over time. Alphabetical listings are suitable for shorter bibliographies and those where the difference between the earliest and latest publication dates is not great. Section headings are useful for distinguishing between works of different type or focus.

Alphabetical bulleted list:

• Baker, Don (1997).Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie. Boulder, CO: Fred Pruett Books.ISBN 0871080508.
• Fifer, Barbara (2002).Montana Mining Ghost Towns. Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press.ISBN 1560371951.
• Miller, Don C. (1982).Ghost Towns of Montana. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing.ISBN 0871086069.
• Whitfield, William W. (2007).Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps: A Pictorial Guide. Stevensville, Montana: Stoneydale Press Publishing Co.ISBN 978-1931291385.

Chronological bulleted list:

• Miller, Don C. (1982).Ghost Towns of Montana. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing.ISBN 0871086069.
• Baker, Don (1997).Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie. Boulder, CO: Fred Pruett Books.ISBN 0871080508.
• Fifer, Barbara (2002).Montana Mining Ghost Towns. Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press.ISBN 1560371951.
• Whitfield, William W. (2007).Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps: A Pictorial Guide. Stevensville, Montana: Stoneydale Press Publishing Co.ISBN 978-1931291385.

Sortable table:

The overall topic of some bibliographies may be so broad as to require asummary style bibliography in which the topic is divided into logical sections, each with only a few entries. Each section should have a {{Main|Bibliography of sub-topic}} template directing the user to the bibliography of the sub-topic. The lead of a summary style bibliography needs to establish discriminate inclusion criteria for the topic and sub-topics just as in the single article bibliography.

It should be possible toverify that each entry in a bibliography meets the inclusion criteria. Here are some simple rules.

• If an entry has a Wikipedia article, merely wikilinking it to the article verifies it because the reader can navigate to the article and determine if the entry meets the inclusion criteria:
  • Halford, F. M. (1886).Floating Flies and How to Dress Them. London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.
• If an entry does not have a Wikipedia article and there might be any doubt that it belongs in the bibliography, it should be cited with a reliable source that verifies its relevance:
  • Gingrich, Arnold (1973).The Joys of Trout. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.ISBN 0517505843.^[2]
• If an entry includes annotations, even if there is a Wikipedia article on it, the annotations may be verified by citations:
  • Venables, Colonel Robert (1662).The Experienced Angler or Angling Improved. London: Richard Marriott., Extensively cited in Herd'sThe Fly, Venables work provides great insight into the fly tackle and techniques being used in the 17th century^[3]
• A quotation associated with an entry may be useful to show the relevance of the entry to the bibliography. All quotations should be cited according to:the guidelines on quotations:
  • Gingrich, Arnold (1974).The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature. New York: Winchester Press., Gingrich, the well known founding editor ofEsquire magazine surveys the major pieces of classic and modern fly fishing literature up through the 1950s. It is an excellent read to get a better understanding of the evolution of the various styles of fly fishing—wet, nymphs, dry, etc. as originally written about by the likes of Halford, Skues, Gordon and Jennings along with many others.

Arnold Gingrich, founding editor ofEsquire magazine, is a tremendous part of the literary history of fly fishing.The Fishing In Print,The Joys of Trout, andThe Well-Tempered Angler are indispensable titles to the well-read fly fisherman of today.

Author bibliographies are lists of the published works of anauthor. The author should benotable and have a Wikipedia article. If there are fewer than 10 works attributable to the author, they should be included in a bibliography or list of works section within the main article.

Thelead of an author bibliography may state something to the effect:

TheUmberto Eco bibliography contains a list of works published byUmberto Eco.

Including a description of the various types and numbers of works published, their period of publication and highlights of the most prestigious works will make the lead more compelling. TheWilliam Faulkner bibliography is a good example of such a lead. Ensure that the lead for a living author followsthe guidelines for biographies of living persons.

Mixed topical and author bibliographies:Some bibliographies contain both works written by the author and works about the author written by others. Leads in these cases should be as explicit as possible on the inclusion criteria for worksabout the author.

TheRichard Nixon bibliography includes publications by former presidentRichard Nixon and books and articles about him and his policies.

Author bibliographies that contain{{Infobox bibliography}} allow for an image of the author and display a summary of works published. Using an infobox also makes the data within it available toDBpedia. Theuse of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article.

Generally, author bibliographies are best presented in chronological order of publication with the earliest works listed first. If the author has a comprehensive set of works spanning different topics,genres or types of publications, the use of section headings is appropriate to delineate those differences. However, within individual sections, works should be listed chronologically.

Lists of works may be in ordered inlist format orwikitable format.Either is acceptable but generally should not be mixed within any given bibliography.

When abook is available online through a site such asInternet Archive,Project Gutenberg, orGoogle Books, it may be useful to provide a link to the book so readers can view it. If the book, journal or report is available online, you may include the|"url" parameter to link the entry to the online version of the work. There is no requirement either to add or remove such links. A link to a Google Book should only be added if the book is available for preview; such links will not work if the book is only available in snippet view.

White, Phillip M (October 2004).Bibliography of Native American bibliographies. Greenwood Publishing Group.ISBN 978-0-313-31941-9.

Citation templates are used to bring consistent formatting to bibliographic entries and help ensure all important bibliographic information is included in the entry. Theuse of citation templates is neither encouraged nor discouraged. If the editors at a bibliographychoose to use them, then the following templates are the most commonly used in bibliographies:

• {{cite book}} – the example below has a link to an online version:

Anderson, Fred (2000).Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War 1754-1766. Random House Digital, Inc.ISBN 978-0-375-70636-3.

For an entry in an author bibliography, use|author-mask= to avoid repeating the author's name. For example, in the above book entry,|author-mask=1 gives the result:

— (2000).Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War 1754-1766. Random House Digital, Inc.ISBN 978-0-375-70636-3.

• {{cite journal}} – cite journal with a link to an online version:

Hayden, F.V. (February 1872)."More about the Yellowstone".Scribner's Monthly.III (4):388–396.

• {{cite report}}:

Culpin, Mary Shivers (1994).The History of the Construction of the Road System of Yellowstone National Park 1872-1966 (Report). National Park Service.

• {{cite web}}:

Ellis, Warren (2011-04-11)."The Spaces Between Stars". Mulholland Books. Retrieved2011-09-02.

For a complete listing of available citation templates, see:Category:Citation templates

TheMediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia has several parameters thatlimit the complexity of a page, thus limiting the amount of templates that can be included. When a page reaches the template limit, the most common solution for a bibliography is to convert some "citation templates" to a "manual style" citation.

Rawls, John (1971). [https://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA1 ''A Theory of Justice'']. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00078-0

Bibliography entries may beannotated to provide additional relevance and explanation of the work.^[5] Annotations should be indented (by adding one colon following the asterisk in front) and cited with a reliable source.

Bibliographies within Wikipedia should be added to one or more of the following categories (including many sub-categories):

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly byJL-Bot (talk ·contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it istagged (e.g.{{WikiProject Bibliographies}}) orcategorized correctly and wait for the next update. SeeWP:RECOG for configuration options.

This table is automatically updated byOleg Alexandrov'sWP 1.0 bot. Seethe log for the latest changes. Bibliographies articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total FL 1 22 18 3 44 GA 1 1 B 2 3 1 3 1 10 C 2 2 6 24 4 38 Start 1 4 14 86 14 119 Stub 2 6 79 2 89 List 2 34 154 447 284 921 Category 181 181 Project 7 7 Template 12 12 NA 1 2 33 95 131 Other 22 22 Assessed 8 46 205 691 317 308 1,575 Unassessed 29 29 Total 8 46 205 691 317 337 1,604 WikiWork factors (?) ω =1,308 Ω = 5.11

{{WikiProject Bibliographies}}

Bibliographies

This article is within the scope ofWikiProject Bibliographies, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage ofBibliographies on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can jointhe discussion and see a list of open tasks.BibliographiesWikipedia:WikiProject BibliographiesTemplate:WikiProject BibliographiesBibliographies ??? This article has not yet received a rating on theimportance scale.

{{User Bibliographies}}

This user is a participant ofWikiProject Bibliographies.

{{User Bibliographies2}}

This user is a participant ofWikiProject Bibliographies

{{Bibliographer barnstar}}

		The Bibliographer Barnstar
		{{{1}}}

{{stand-alone list}}

This is astand-alone list that meets listnotability criteria. Please only add items that meet theselection criteria established in the lead.

• {{Dynamic list}}
  This is adynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help byediting the page to add missing items, with references toreliable sources.
• {{Expand list}}

  This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.

• {{List missing criteria}}

  This list has noprecise inclusion criteria as described in theManual of Style for standalone lists. Pleaseimprove this article by adding inclusion criteria, or discuss this issue on thetalk page.

• {{Notability|lists}}

  The topic of this articlemay not meet Wikipedia'snotability guideline for stand-alone lists. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citingreliable secondary sources that areindependent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to bemerged,redirected, ordeleted. Find sources: "WikiProject Bibliographies" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See alsothe tool's wiki page andthe index of WikiProjects.

Featured topic candidates

• 21 Nov 2025 –List of works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie(talk · edit · hist) was FT nominated bySafariScribe(t · c); seediscussion

Articles to be split

• 13 Nov 2024 –List of poetry collections(talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting byBagoto(t · c); seediscussion

Articles for creation

• 02 Dec 2025 –Draft:Jacopo della Pila(talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC byWikiprato(t · c)

• changes related to WikiProject Bibliographies articles
• discussions in WikiProject Bibliographies articles

• Science task force

Main tasks in order of priority:

• Recruit members interested in supporting this project (on-going)
• Identify and tag with{{WikiProject Bibliographies}} all stand-alone bibliographies and related lists of publications
• Rename appropriate bibliographic articles to "Bibliography of ..." or "Author bibliography" as needed
• Strengthen leads, inclusion criteria and sourcing perWP:NOTESAL as necessary to improve existing bibliographies
• Add infoboxes to author bibliographies
• Convert malformed entries to proper citation formats
• Add ISBN numbers perMOS:WORKS#ISBNs
• Identify potential new bibliographies and recruit editors to build them
• Add|attention=yes to the tag template as needed.
• MonitorCategory:Bibliographies articles needing attention.
• Monitor the recent changes lists to see which articles are being edited, work collaboratively, and revert vandalism.
• If any bibliographies are listed inWikipedia:Articles for deletion, add them toWikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Bibliographies (see instructions on that page).

Add your name and interests at the end of the list.

• Mike Cline (talk) – Interested in expanding bibliographies related to Western History
• RockMagnetist (talk) – Interested in scientific bibliographies
• Bduke (talk) – Interested in scientific bibliographies, particularly chemistry ones.
• McMormor (talk) – Interested in bibliographies being used by professors, students and anyone else engaged in research annotated bibliographiesWP:USEDU.
• Dirac66 (talk) – Science, primarily chemistry and physics.
• LadyofShalott – scientific bibliographies, selected author bibliographies, possible relationship with WikiProject Libraries (but not certain what that might be)
• Moxy (talk)15:56, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
• Rjensen (talk)18:05, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
• Rothbardanswer (talk) – interested in historiography and economic bibliographies with emphasis on the history of thought and classical liberalism.
• Gwillhickers – Interested in Early American / British naval history, history in general and Philately. Bibliographies created/built:1,2,3
• KingJeff1970 (talk)19:31, 22 November 2014 (UTC) – Interested in working on bibs on Western U.S. history, U.S. political and environmental history.[reply]
• Jeff Potter (talk) 2:16, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
• Timothy (talk) 19 November 2019 – Interested in History in general, particularly the History of the Americas, History of Colonialism/Imperialism, History of the United States, California History
• Shishuwiki (talk) 27 Jenuary 2020 - interested in general, particulary history, science and history of science with emphasis on wemon in science .
• TryKid (talk)10:43, 16 April 2020 (UTC) — Interested in Bhutan and India[reply]
• ch (talk)ch (talk)14:35, 8 September 2020 (UTC). China, American novels, History.[reply]
• Kommerz (talk)16:15, 2 August 2021 (UTC), working on a bibliography with Wikidata (Q54007056)[reply]
• Ivan (talk)16:32, 6 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• GeogSage ^{(⚔Chat?⚔)}23:03, 20 November 2024 (UTC) - Interested in creating scientific bibliographies, particularly for geographers.[reply]

Compiling bibliographies is a major activity of historians and scholars. The following sources provide interesting insights into the creation and use of bibliographies.

• The Chicago Manual of Style (U. of Chicago Press, 16th ed. 2010) ch 14excerpt and text search
• "Bibliography for Beginners". Independent Online Booksellers Association. Retrieved2011-10-10.^{[dead link]}
• "How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography". Cornell University Library. Retrieved2011-10-10.^{[dead link]}

• Wikipedia:Book sources
• Google book tool Converts bare url into{{cite book}} format
• List of bibliographic resources
• VIAF:Virtual Internet Authority File
• New General Catalogue of Old Books and Authors
• a.k.a. list of pseudonyms

• WP:WikiProject Contents
• WP:WikiProject Glossaries
• WP:WikiProject Indexes
• WP:The Wikipedia Library

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