This is anexplanatory essay about theWikipedia:Verifiability policy. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community.

Shortcut WP:LIKELYWP:LIKELY

Wikipedia's content policies requireinline citations for all direct quotations, for contentious material, whether negative, positive, or neutral, about living persons, and for any material that has been challenged, or is "likely" to be challenged.

In saying that inline citations are required for material that is likely to be challenged, Wikipedia's community uses the ordinary, everyday definition for the wordlikely: "probable; having a greater-than-even chance of occurring" or "having a high probability of occurring."^[1] Many statements are likely to be challenged, and many statements areunlikely to be challenged.

• If, based on your experience, a given statement has a greater than 50% chance of being challenged in good faith, either by removal, in a discussion on the talk page, or by the addition of a^{[citation needed]} or similar tag, then you should supply an inline citation for that material. This will be the case, for example, every time you add a controversial fact to an article.
• If, based on your experience, a given statement has a less than 50% chance of being challenged, then inline citations arenot required for that material
• If the statementsubsequently is challenged, then the likelihood of it being challenged rises to 100%, and an inline citation to a reliable source that directly supports the statement is required.

• Wikipedia:Content that could reasonably be challenged
• WP:MINREF, the four types of statements for which content policies requireWP:Inline citations
• WP:When to cite, detailed guidance for Featured Articles.
• Factually accurate and verifiable, the five types of material requiring inline citations for Good Articles
• WP:Common knowledge
• WP:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue
• WP:Youdo need to cite that the sky is blue
• WP:Why most sentences should be cited

• Wikipedia supplemental pages
• Wikipedia essays about verification