Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies#Topical bibliographies

A bibliography, the product of the practice of bibliography, is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from "works cited" lists at the end of books and articles to complete, independent publications. As separate works, they may be in bound volumes or computerised bibliographic databases. A library 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.{{cite web |url=http://aboutobo.com/about-obo/ |title=About Oxford Bibliographies Online |access-date=2011-10-07}} 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 are specialized 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 of Classical 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 by Jimmy 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.

{{Project page count|project=Bibliographies}}

Bibliographies are Wikipedia articles. They must comply with fundamental principles such as Neutral point of view, and policies such as No original research and Verifiability.

Bibliographies are Lists 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 the guidelines for biographies of living persons.

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

{{quotation|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 article Bibliography of fly fishing there are reliable sources that demonstrate notability of the bibliography for each of the source types above.

• {{cite book |last=Hampton |first=Jack |editor=Ken Callahan and Paul Morgan |title=Hampton's Angling Bibliography-Fishing Books 1881-1949 |publisher=Medlar Press |location=Ellesmere, UK |year=2008 |isbn=9781899600878}} – A published bibliography of angling literature, first published in 1947.
• {{cite book |last=Bark |first=Conrad Voss |title=A History of Fly Fishing |chapter=Bibliography |publisher=Melvin Unwin Books |location=Shropshire, UK |year=1992 |isbn=1873674031 |pages=175–181}} – Source contains a comprehensive bibliography of fly fishing related books.
• {{cite book |last=Gingrich |first=Arnold |author-link=Arnold Gingrich |title=The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature |chapter=Annotated List of Some Choice Fishing in Print Since 1935 |year=1974 |publisher=Winchester Press |location=New York |pages=311–336 }} – Source contains an annotated list of recommended reading on fly fishing.

{{WikiProject style advice|type=section|sort-by=Bibliographies}}

{{See also|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists of works#Bibliographies |label 1=Manual of Style for bibliographies}}

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 within Wikipedia: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 as biology should be named Bibliography of biology. Because Bibliography is a recognized type of list in Wikipedia, an explicit use of the word is preferable to titles such as {{!xt|List of important books about biology}} and {{!xt|Publications on biology}}. Words like important, influential, landmark, notable and popular 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: {{xt|Bibliography of works on John Doe}}. This eliminates confusion with {{xt|John 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 as Mark Twain should be named Mark 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 called Works 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 the notability 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 policies Wikipedia is not a directory and Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Well-defined context helps counter those challenges.

• Explicit lead example: {{Quotation|Bibliography of Colditz Castle is a list of works about Colditz 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: {{Quotation|Bibliography of Prem Rawat and related organizations lists bibliographical material regarding Prem Rawat and organizations like Divine Light Mission, Elan Vital and The 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 by Prem 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: {{Quotation|List of books about risk is a list of books about risk issues.}}

:(The concept of risk is not defined in the lead nor is it linked to the article on risk. Even if it were, the article reveals that risk 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 a Further reading section in the topic article.

In each section, bibliography entries should be organized either as a bulleted list or wikitable 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:

• {{cite book |last=Baker |first=Don |title=Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie |publisher=Fred Pruett Books |location=Boulder, CO |year=1997 |isbn=0871080508 }}
• {{cite book |last=Fifer |first=Barbara |title=Montana Mining Ghost Towns |publisher=Farcountry Press |location=Helena, Montana |year=2002 |isbn=1560371951 }}
• {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Don C. |title=Ghost Towns of Montana |publisher=Pruett Publishing |location=Boulder, Colorado |year=1982 |isbn=0871086069 }}
• {{cite book |last=Whitfield |first=William W. |title=Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps: A Pictorial Guide |publisher=Stoneydale Press Publishing Co |location=Stevensville, Montana |year=2007 |isbn=978-1931291385}}

Chronological bulleted list:

• {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Don C. |title=Ghost Towns of Montana |publisher=Pruett Publishing |location=Boulder, Colorado |year=1982 |isbn=0871086069 }}
• {{cite book |last=Baker |first=Don |title=Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie |publisher=Fred Pruett Books |location=Boulder, CO |year=1997 |isbn=0871080508 }}
• {{cite book |last=Fifer |first=Barbara |title=Montana Mining Ghost Towns |publisher=Farcountry Press |location=Helena, Montana |year=2002 |isbn=1560371951 }}
• {{cite book |last=Whitfield |first=William W. |title=Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps: A Pictorial Guide |publisher=Stoneydale Press Publishing Co |location=Stevensville, Montana |year=2007 |isbn=978-1931291385}}

Sortable table:

The overall topic of some bibliographies may be so broad as to require a summary 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 to verify 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:
• {{cite book |last=Halford |first=F. M. |author-link=Frederic M. Halford |title=Floating Flies and How to Dress Them|year=1886 |publisher=Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington |location=London}}
• 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:
• {{cite book |last=Gingrich |first=Arnold |author-link=Arnold Gingrich |title=The Joys of Trout |year=1973 |publisher=Crown Publishers, Inc |location=New York |isbn=0517505843 }}University of New Hampshire Library, Milne Angling Collection Selected Highlights, [http://www.izaak.unh.edu/milne/guide.htm]
• If an entry includes annotations, even if there is a Wikipedia article on it, the annotations may be verified by citations:
• {{cite book |last=Venables |first=Colonel Robert |author-link=Robert Venables |title=The Experienced Angler or Angling Improved |publisher=Richard Marriott |location=London |year=1662 |url=http://www.archive.org/details/experiencedangle00venarich}}, Extensively cited in Herd's The Fly, Venables work provides great insight into the fly tackle and techniques being used in the 17th century{{cite book |last=Herd |first=Andrew Dr |title=The Fly |publisher=Medlar Press |location=Ellesmere, Shropshire |year=2001 |isbn=1899600191 }}
• 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:
• {{cite book |last=Gingrich |first=Arnold |title=The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature |year=1974 |publisher=Winchester Press |location=New York |isbn= }}, Gingrich, the well known founding editor of Esquire 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.

{{quotation|Arnold Gingrich, founding editor of Esquire magazine, is a tremendous part of the literary history of fly fishing. The Fishing In Print, The Joys of Trout, and The Well-Tempered Angler are indispensable titles to the well-read fly fisherman of today.|Glenn Law|A Concise History of Fly Fishing, 1995.{{cite book |last=Law |first=Glenn |title=A Concise History of Fly Fishing |year=1995 |publisher=Odysseus Editions |location=Birmingham, Alabama |pages=162 }}}}

Author bibliographies are lists of the published works of an author. The author should be notable 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.

The lead of an author bibliography may state something to the effect:

{{Quotation|The Umberto Eco bibliography contains a list of works published by Umberto 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. The William Faulkner bibliography is a good example of such a lead. Ensure that the lead for a living author follows the 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 works about the author.

{{Quotation|The Richard Nixon bibliography includes publications by former president Richard Nixon and books and articles about him and his policies.}}

Author bibliographies that contain {{Tl|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 to DBpedia. The use 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 in list format or wikitable format.

Either is acceptable but generally should not be mixed within any given bibliography.

When a book is available online through a site such as Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, or Google 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 Template:Cite book#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.

{{Quotation|{{cite book|first=Phillip M|last=White|title=Bibliography of Native American bibliographies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oan5GrAzIjAC&pg=PP1|date=October 2004|publisher=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. The use of citation templates is neither encouraged nor discouraged. If the editors at a bibliography choose to use them, then the following templates are the most commonly used in bibliographies:

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

{{Quotation|{{cite book|first=Fred |last=Anderson|title=Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War 1754-1766|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vMxLslZopgC&pg=PR1|year=2000|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc|isbn=978-0-375-70636-3}}}}

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

:{{Quotation|{{cite book|first=Fred |last=Anderson|title=Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War 1754-1766|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vMxLslZopgC&pg=PR1|year=2000|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc|isbn=978-0-375-70636-3|author-mask=1}}}}

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

{{Quotation|{{cite journal |last=Hayden |first=F.V. |title=More about the Yellowstone |journal=Scribner's Monthly | date=February 1872 |volume=III |pages=388–396 |url=http://www.archive.org/details/centuryillustrat03newyuoft |issue=4}}}}

• {{tl|cite report}}:

{{Quotation|{{Cite report |title=The History of the Construction of the Road System of Yellowstone National Park 1872-1966 |url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/yell_roads/hrst.htm |last=Culpin |first=Mary Shivers|year=1994 |publisher=National Park Service |access-date= |docket= }}}}

• {{tl|cite web}}:

{{Quotation|{{cite web|last=Ellis |first=Warren |url=https://www.mulhollandbooks.com/mulholland-news/965/ |title=The Spaces Between Stars |publisher=Mulholland Books |date=2011-04-11 |access-date=2011-09-02}}}}

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

The MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia has several parameters that limit 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.

{{Quotation|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 be annotated to provide additional relevance and explanation of the work.{{cite web |url=http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/annotated-bibliography |title=Writing an Annotated Bibliography |publisher=University of Toronto |access-date=2011-10-10}} 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):

{{category tree all|Wikipedia bibliographies|depth=1}}

{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies/Recognized content}}

{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies/Article assessment statistics}}

{{tl|WikiProject Bibliographies}} {{WikiProject Bibliographies|category=no|class=NA}}

{{tl|User Bibliographies}} {{User Bibliographies}} {{clear}}
{{tl|User Bibliographies2}} {{template:User Bibliographies2}}{{clear}}
{{tl|Bibliographer barnstar}} {{Bibliographer barnstar}}

{{Tl|stand-alone list}} {{stand-alone list}}

• {{Tlp|Dynamic list}} {{Dynamic list}}
• {{Tlp|Expand list}} {{Expand list|category = no}}
• {{Tlp|List missing criteria}} {{List missing criteria}}
• {{tlp|Notability|lists}} {{Notability|lists}}

{{WikiProject cleanup listing}}

{{/Article alerts}}

• 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 {{Tl|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 per WP:NOTESAL as necessary to improve existing bibliographies
• Add infoboxes to author bibliographies
• Convert malformed entries to proper citation formats
• Add ISBN numbers per MOS:WORKS#ISBNs
• Identify potential new bibliographies and recruit editors to build them
• Add {{para|attention|yes}} to the tag template as needed.
• Monitor :Category: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 in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion, add them to Wikipedia: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 bibliographies WP: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)
• Rjensen (talk) 18:05, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
• 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.
• 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
• ch (talk) ch (talk) 14:35, 8 September 2020 (UTC). China, American novels, History.
• Kommerz (talk) 16:15, 2 August 2021 (UTC), working on a bibliography with Wikidata ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54007056 Q54007056])
• Ivan (talk) 16:32, 6 May 2024 (UTC)
• GeogSage ^{(⚔Chat?⚔)} 23:03, 20 November 2024 (UTC) - Interested in creating scientific bibliographies, particularly for geographers.

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 14 [http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Manual-Style-16th/dp/0226104206/ excerpt and text search]
• {{cite web |url=http://www.ioba.org/newsletter/archive/v1/bibliography0400.html |title=Bibliography for Beginners

|publisher=Independent Online Booksellers Association |access-date=2011-10-10}}{{dead link}}

• {{cite web |url=http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill28.htm |title=How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography|publisher=Cornell University Library |access-date=2011-10-10}}{{dead link}}

{{reflist}}

{{main|Wikipedia:Tools}}

• Wikipedia:Book sources
• [http://reftag.appspot.com/ Google book tool] Converts bare url into {{tl|cite book}} format
• [http://college.lclark.edu/departments/history/student_resources/ List of bibliographic resources]
• [http://viaf.org/ VIAF:Virtual Internet Authority File]
• [http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ngcoba/ngcoba.htm New General Catalogue of Old Books and Authors]
• [http://www.trussel.com/books/pseudo.htm a.k.a.] list of pseudonyms

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

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