Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles

This is a WikiProject, an open group of Wikipedia editors. New participants are welcome; feel free to talk to us!

Ask yourselves: why didn't you look up Wikipedia's articles about economy, Dmitri Mendeleev, man, or land even though you know little about them? Simple, because they suck. Millions of people feel the same way too. This is not acceptable on our side and this must be changed by making these articles good.

Subpages

Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Tools - technical how-to on how to use tools and scripts

Past work

30 kB drive: 47 articles expanded to 30 kilobytes; 26 July 2022 – 31 August 2022
Vital GA Drive: Land to good article status, unsuccessful; 1 September – 15 November 2022

Function

This WikiProject is designed to be a public space that has neat stuff to do or learn about, and to serve as a place where you sit down, relax, and make edits or discuss with others. Its purpose is to improve the Vitals articles and lists. We always welcome anonymous and new people here (and if you are one of them, have a chat at the talk page!)

There is no such thing as "joining" or "registering" for this WikiProject, as it is an overarching project that aims to gather other WikiProjects together for collaboration. If you're actively improving vital articles, you're already a member of this WikiProject. If you want to find people that are working on Vital articles, use this link to find recent edits and talk to them directly.

Tasks

Wikipedia:Database reports/Vital articles update report
No backlogUnassessed vital articles – -2 articles in total
No backlogVital articles with unknown topic – 0 articles in total

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

Improving a Vital article

While we might not know the exact formula for mass-producing Vital GAs, we do know ways to tackle and improve these kind of articles. Here are some techniques that you can use:

Don't be afraid to try and don't be a perfectionist. Yes, that paragraph that you just wrote might not be there once the article is at GAN, but it will be an important stepping stone for recognizing further improvement. As long as your own content is significantly better and more reliable than the rest of the article, you've done a good job.
Be concise and keep the summary style in mind. An article should not be too long or else the readers will become dizzy (~60 kB of readable prose is the ideal size). Pro tip: one of the best way to quickly raise article quality is to trim bad content, such as cruft, unsourced sections, original research, etc.
Be mindful of systematic bias. For vital articles specifically, the most commonly encountered bias is American-European bias. For example, there's a tendency of using European allegories or paintings to illustrate abstract ideas. Don't just swap these images for the sake of diversity however. Remember, the best images are the one that is relevant, high-resolution, sharp, shows the subject clearly in the small thumbnail and is applicable to all cultures.
Patrol sources and ensure their quality. If you find a low-quality source, either replace it with higher-quality ones or jank the content if it doesn't warrant inclusion in the first place. The WP:RSP list, User:SuperHamster/CiteUnseen and User:Headbomb/unreliable are some of the best tools available to detect bad sources, though remember to use your own judgement as well.
Copyedit the text and make sure that the text looks more Wikipedia-like. If in doubt, take a look at Wikipedia:Basic copyediting, Wikipedia:Writing better articles, WP:Manual of Style and more.

If you had completed all of these basic techniques, here are some of the more specialized yet powerful ways that you can improve Vital articles. Enjoy these dishes with extra Wikipedia:Ignore all rules and common sense:

Use the bold, revert, discuss cycle to garner attention and quickly adding improvements the (old) Wikipedia way. This method is especially useful for editing popular country articles provided that you're prepared. Just make an edit that you think it would improve the article, the edit then gets reverted, and both people discuss to reach a better solution.
Use AutoWikiBrowser and other automated tools to quickly correct errors in many Vital articles. For example, you can use AWB to monitor typos and fix them accordingly. Detailed instructions for some tools such as WP:PetScan and user scripts can be obtained at Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Tools.
Import good content from subtopic articles. For example, in a section about the properties of numbers, it may be helpful to get the content from smaller scope articles such as natural numbers. However, you will need to attribute the source per Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia and can be pretty tedious when messing with the template. An IAR and simpler way might be to make a talk page section and list all of your articles that you've copied, including their oldid.
And perhaps, the most spicy of 'em all is using large language models such as ChatGPT, GPT-3, etc. for brainstorming ideas on Wikipedia. These neural networks as of 2023 are one of the most powerful tool to face the writer's block and give clues at expanding broad-topic articles, and they have the potential to do far more in the future. It should NOT, however, be used to generate original content because of original research and verifiability policy.

Awards

We have a good roster of awards given to those that help us advance the goal to make all Vital Articles GAs and FAs. These awards may be awarded by anyone to anyone worthy.

Barnstars

{{subst:Vital Barnstar|1=message ~~~~}} – good old barnstar, given to those that have done a good job.

		Vital Barnstar
		{{{1}}}

{{subst:The Vital Articles Barnstar|1=message ~~~~}}

		The Vital Articles Barnstar
		{{{1}}}

Userboxes

{{User Vital}} – for members of the project.

This user contributes to
vital articles on Wikipedia.

{{Vital userbox}} – good old userbox, given to those that have done a good job.

This user has received a Vital barnstar.

{{Good Vital infobox}} – Userbox for those that have successfully nominated a Vital good article.

This user has helped promote vital good articles on Wikipedia.

{{Featured Vital infobox}} – Userbox for those that have successfully nominated a Vital featured article.

This user has helped promote vital featured articles on Wikipedia.

Assessment

For mobile readers, you can click here to switch to desktop mode to read the table more easily. This Vital article assessment scheme is meant to be subjective and complementary to Wikipedia:Content assessment.

Class	Criteria	Reader's experience	Editing suggestions	Example
FA	The article is professional, complete, engaging, and has been vetted by WP:Featured article candidates. More detailed criteria It meets the featured article criteria. (most important) It doesn't suffer from systematic bias. It will not be ridiculed for experts for over-generalization, yet is still understandable by a secondary school student. It feels "structured" – navigable, accessible, intelligible, editable, and translatable. It has a good selection of see also and further reading links, akin to a professor's reading/interactive content recommendations for the student.	Experts and casual readers alike will find the content easy to digest, accurate, and engaging. You can format the article to look like an actual Nature journal article and it would look believable.	Improve the prose, update the information, remove vandalism, make the text more professional and engaging, all the WikiGnome stuff! Try to make the text more readable and engaging to a wider audience if you dare.	Solar System
A	The article is well organized, complete in terms of content, and has been examined by a dedicated WikiProject department such as WikiProject Military History A-class assessment. As a special assessment rank, it meets the A-Class criteria. The actual criteria can be slightly different due to nuances within individual WikiProjects.	Readers will find it complete, but experts will know better and still have grumbling at missing/incorrect information throughout the article. There will still be hiccups or typos when you read the article top-down.	Expert knowledge may be needed to tweak the article, and style problems may need to be addressed. Consider contacting experts at your relevant A-Class department for more advice.	Napoleon
GA	The article is reasonably complete and suitable for translation to other languages, after being vetted WP:Good article nominations. More detailed criteria It meets the good article criteria. (most important) It is applicable to the global population and is suitable for translation/porting to Abstract Wikipedia It is a good resource as a beginner introduction to the topic. Its heading layout is mostly complete and require little to no adjustments. It has a rough consensus by the talk page participant as being worthy for the good article status (ask the talk page to see if anyone has any objections before passing the article) Almost all secondary sources are written from the late-20th century (1970s) onwards. This criterion would ensure that the article is up to date.	Fairly standard quality level for a top-tier Encyclopædia Britannica article but with less generalization and dumb-downness. Readers will at least not be drowned in text, and experts will find it usable for refreshing their memory.	Detect Wikipedia:Systemic bias in the article and address them; more viewpoints generally meant better article at this point. Touch-up on your citations and style and make sure the text is in line with your sources. Make sure that the text is appealing to a wide audience and not a slog to read.	Marie Curie
B	The article is kinda complete, reliable and suitably organized. From this point on, there is no need to revamp the article layout. More detailed criteria It meets the six B-Class criteria: The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations. It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited. Any format of inline citation is acceptable: the use of <ref> tags and citation templates such as `{{cite web}}` is optional. The article reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. It contains a large proportion of the material necessary for an A-Class article, although some sections may need expansion, and some less important topics may be missing. The article has a defined structure. Content should be organized into groups of related material, including a lead section and all the sections that can reasonably be included in an article of its kind. The article is reasonably well-written. The prose contains no major grammatical errors and flows sensibly, but does not need to be of the standard of featured articles. The Manual of Style does not need to be followed rigorously. The article contains supporting materials where appropriate. Illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams, an infobox etc. should be included where they are relevant and useful to the content. The article presents its content in an appropriately understandable way. It is written with as broad an audience in mind as possible. The article should not assume unnecessary technical background and technical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.	"Seems good", a reader thought. Citations, prose and images are better than average, but lots of cruds still remain. Experts would likely look elsewhere for content, maybe at a specialist encyclopedia or journal articles if they need answer to specific questions.	A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed. Expert knowledge may be needed. Start addressing systematic bias since this article will be translated to other languages and the inclusion of media should be considered as well.	Atom
C	The article is still missing important content or contains much irrelevant material. It may still have significant problems or require substantial cleanup. It may have some gaps or missing elements; need editing for clarity, balance, or flow; or contain policy violations, such as bias or original research.	When a reader scrolls down, they would see a vast amount of text no more useful than at a random website, with no coherent theme, and dumpster fire of terrible sources. "This article could be better" – they thought.	Providing references to reliable sources should come first; the article also needs substantial improvement in content and organization. Also improve the grammar, spelling, writing style and improve the jargon use.	Food preservation
Start	The article sorely lacks content, and lacks a lot of it. The article has a usable amount of good content but is weak in many areas. Quality of the prose may be distinctly unencyclopedic.	Readers find it just a bit more useful than a dictionary definition, and experts will scoff on it. And they would definitely not read more than the lead portion of the article.	Find sources and add content based on them. Make sure that you make the article structure easy to expand upon. Think about a general "theme" or "flow" to the article – what do you want it to look like?	Equation
Stub	A very basic description of the topic that needs a ton of content expansion. The article will need much work to become a meaningful article.	"Ah yes, that thing exists on Wikipedia" – a reader thought. Then they close Wikipedia and search on Google to hunt down more reliable/comprehensive content.	Add content like there's no tomorrow. Keep doing it. Add more content!	Rapids

Dashboard

Article alerts

For article alerts about a specific level, see:

For article alerts on all vital articles (levels 1–5):

Article alerts

Today's featured articles

29 Jul 2026 – Tiger (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb
26 Jul 2026 – Nile (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb
25 Jul 2026 – Las Meninas (talk · edit · hist) will be Today's Featured Article; see blurb

Today's featured article requests

28 Sep 2026 – Genshin Impact (talk · edit · hist) has been proposed for Today's Featured Article by Gommeh (t · c); see discussion

Did you know

13 Jul 2026 – Second Intermediate Period of Egypt (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by JJNito197 (t · c); see discussion
13 Jul 2026 – Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Chao Garden (t · c); see discussion
22 Jun 2026 – Edward Victor Appleton (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Hawkeye7 (t · c); see discussion

Redirects for discussion

21 Jul 2026 – Quantum systems (talk · edit · hist) →Quantum mechanics was RfDed by Tercer (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Thomas Gets Bumped & Other Stories (talk · edit · hist) →Thomas & Friends was RfDed by Gavetheman555 (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Thomas & his Friends Help Out (talk · edit · hist) →Thomas & Friends was RfDed by SleepyRedHair (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – 名 (talk · edit · hist) →Name was RfDed by Consarn (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Detroit animal abuse (talk · edit · hist) →Cruelty to animals was RfDed by Steel1943 (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – 靜岡 (talk · edit · hist) →Shizuoka (city) was RfDed by Miminity (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Chockey chicken (talk · edit · hist) →Masturbation was RfDed by TNstingray (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Helen of Athena (talk · edit · hist) →Helen of Troy was RfDed by TNstingray (t · c); see discussion
20 Jul 2026 – Seal of the Iroquois Confederacy (talk · edit · hist) →Haudenosaunee was RfDed by Myceteae (t · c); see discussion
19 Jul 2026 – Belinda Cratchit. (talk · edit · hist) →A Christmas Carol was RfDed by Tevildo (t · c); see discussion

(38 more...)

Files for discussion

16 Jul 2026 – File:Nirvana band all 3 members.jpg (talk · edit · hist) (on 1, 2) was FfDed by Gråbergs Gråa Sång (t · c); see discussion
28 Jun 2026 – File:Pinocchio-1940-poster.jpg (talk · edit · hist) (on Pinocchio (1940 film)) was FfDed by Nutella lover (t · c); see discussion
23 Jun 2026 – File:Chicago Bulls logo.svg (talk · edit · hist) (on Chicago Bulls) was FfDed by Based5290 (t · c); see discussion
07 Jun 2026 – File:National Basketball Association logo.svg (talk · edit · hist) (on National Basketball Association) was FfDed by Based5290 (t · c); see discussion
02 Jun 2026 – File:Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.jpg (talk · edit · hist) (on 1, 2) was FfDed by JohnCWiesenthal (t · c); see discussion
03 May 2026 – File:Kim Dae-jung billboard, 1971.jpg (talk · edit · hist) (on 1, 2, 3) was FfDed by Piotrus (t · c); see discussion
25 Apr 2026 – File:Minecraft game logo 2023.png (talk · edit · hist) (on Minecraft) was FfDed by Based5290 (t · c); see discussion
12 Feb 2026 – File:EuroLeague.svg (talk · edit · hist) (on EuroLeague) was FfDed by Candidyeoman55 (t · c); see discussion

Featured article reviews

04 Jul 2026 – John Millington Synge (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by George Ho (t · c); see discussion
19 May 2026 – Oxidative phosphorylation (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
17 Mar 2026 – Tōru Takemitsu (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
08 Mar 2026 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Borsoka (t · c); see discussion
10 Jan 2026 – Douglas MacArthur (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion
07 Jul 2025 – India (talk · edit · hist) was put up for FA review by JDiala (t · c); see discussion

Good article reassessments

17 Jul 2026 – Otaku (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by Generalissima (t · c); see discussion
08 Jul 2026 – Gangnam Style (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by 2600 etc (t · c); see discussion
26 Jun 2026 – Smedley Butler (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by Dreamyshade (t · c); see discussion
25 Jun 2026 – Emanuel Lasker (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by BrotherGunk (t · c); see discussion
21 Jun 2026 – Aphrodite (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by Atlasstar09 (t · c); see discussion
01 May 2026 – Smallpox (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for GA reassessment by Z1720 (t · c); see discussion

Requests for comments

21 Jul 2026 – Muslims (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Ixtal (t · c); see discussion
19 Jul 2026 – World War I (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Emiya1980 (t · c); see discussion
18 Jul 2026 – Pep Guardiola (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Kingsif (t · c); see discussion
11 Jul 2026 – Tang dynasty (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Guile's Theme (t · c); see discussion
08 Jul 2026 – Flag of Egypt (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by LaundryPizza03 (t · c); see discussion
07 Jul 2026 – Republican Party (United States) (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Springee (t · c); see discussion
07 Jul 2026 – World Athletics Championships (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by CSGinger14 (t · c); see discussion
02 Jul 2026 – Magazine (firearms) (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Lightbreather (t · c); see discussion
20 Jul 2026 – Child pornography (talk · edit · hist) RfC by ShawnIsHere (t · c) was closed; see discussion

Peer reviews

19 Jul 2026 – Justin Timberlake (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by RedShellMomentum (t · c); see discussion
12 Jul 2026 – Medri Bahri (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Habeshakira (t · c); see discussion
09 Jul 2026 – Paris Street; Rainy Day (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by DAP389 (t · c); see discussion
06 Jul 2026 – Hindu mythology (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Hemmingweigh (t · c); see discussion
23 Jun 2026 – Chimpanzee (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by LittleJerry (t · c); see discussion
18 Jun 2026 – Premise (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Phlsph7 (t · c); see discussion
10 Jun 2026 – Thomas Edison (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Czarking0 (t · c); see discussion
06 Jun 2026 – Columbine High School massacre (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Gavetheman555 (t · c); see discussion
15 May 2025 – Stingless bee (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Dracophyllum (t · c); see discussion

Requested moves

22 Jul 2026 – Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer) (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Ronaldo Nazário by YeedyYaada (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Carbon fiber reinforced polymer by Srnec (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Child pornography (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Child sexual abuse material by ShawnIsHere (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – Byzantine Empire (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Eastern Roman Empire by ~2026-40818-43 (t · c); see discussion
21 Jul 2026 – International Society for Krishna Consciousness (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to ISKCON by EarthDude (t · c); see discussion
20 Jul 2026 – Anorexia nervosa (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Anorexia by Zxcvbnm (t · c); see discussion
20 Jul 2026 – Bulimia nervosa (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Bulimia by Zxcvbnm (t · c); see discussion
19 Jul 2026 – Aktion T4 (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Euthanasia in Nazi Germany by Aemilius Adolphin (t · c); see discussion
17 Jul 2026 – Garfield Sobers (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Garry Sobers by Billsmith60 (t · c); see discussion
16 Jul 2026 – Merina Kingdom (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Kingdom of Madagascar by Lord Dim 1 (t · c); see discussion

(13 more...)

Articles to be split

16 Jul 2026 – Atlas (mythology) (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by ThunderBrine (t · c); see discussion
15 Jul 2026 – Vietnam War (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Greenknight dv (t · c); see discussion
03 Jul 2026 – Indian National Congress (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Mehedi Abedin (t · c); see discussion
18 Jun 2026 – Sears (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Thomasfan1916 (t · c); see discussion
15 Jun 2026 – Accretion disk (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by BennBluee (t · c); see discussion
08 Jun 2026 – Pan Am (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Youravreageavaitor (t · c); see discussion
07 Jun 2026 – Benjamin Netanyahu (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by 2x2x2x2x2 (t · c); see discussion
04 Jun 2026 – Montevideo (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by ~2026-26767-44 (t · c); see discussion
24 Apr 2026 – Hydrogen sulfide (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Smokefoot (t · c); see discussion
22 Apr 2026 – Campylobacter jejuni (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Artoria2e5 (t · c); see discussion

(76 more...)

Updated daily by AAlertBot — Discuss? / Report bug? / Request feature?
Click to watch (Subscribe via

RSS

Atom) · Find Article Alerts for other topics!

Statistics

Vital pages by quality
Quality
Quality	Total
Assessed	0
Total	0