Wikipedia's New Review Process: Closing the Libeler’s Playground. What Wikipedia is not. Reviewing. This page explains and provides the guidelines for the review process associated with the pending changes protection feature (enabled on 1 December 2012). Articles with pending changes applied can be reviewed by administrators or users called reviewers who hold the reviewer permission.
The process of reviewing is intended as a quick check to ensure edits don't contain vandalism, violations of the policy on living people, copyright violations, or other obviously inappropriate content. Currently, there are 1,407 administrators and 6,103 reviewers (7,510 in total) on the English Wikipedia. Overview[edit] The purpose of reviewing is to catch and filter out obvious vandalism and obviously inappropriate edits on articles under pending changes protection, a special kind of protection that permits anonymous and newly registered editors to submit edits to articles that would otherwise be semi- or fully protected under one or more of the criteria listed in the protection policy.
See also[edit] Verifiability. To discuss particular sources, see the reliable sources noticeboard. For vandalism, see WP:VAND. For the default Wikipedia skin, see WP:VECTOR. In Wikipedia, verifiability means that people reading and editing the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Wikipedia does not publish original research. All material in Wikipedia mainspace, including everything in articles, lists and captions, must be verifiable.
For how to write citations, see citing sources. Burden All content must be verifiable. Attribute all quotations and any material challenged or likely to be challenged to a reliable, published source using an inline citation. Any material lacking a reliable source directly supporting it may be removed and should not be replaced without an inline citation to a reliable source. Do not leave unsourced or poorly sourced material in an article if it might damage the reputation of living people or existing groups, and do not move it to the talk page. Notes. Verifiability/Removal of Uncited Material. This essay in brief: While Wikipedia:Verifiability indicates that unreferenced article content should be removed, it does not precisely define the timing and appropriate steps for removal in all instance. This essay provides additional guidance on whether, when, and how to delete material that lacks a cited source. This essay is still a work in progress. Anyone may contribute, but it is entirely unfinished and may be subject to rapid and radical change.
It should thus not be used or referenced in any debate, as it may well not say what you think. Purpose[edit] It is beyond the scope of a policy page to exhaustively specify how long editors should wait before removing content that is not supported by citations and references. Deleting a claim because it is inadequately cited is a decision that should be taken with consideration and care, and is not a call that contributors should make on unfamiliar topics. What counts as a reference? Where references can be found[edit] Lack of access[edit]