Wikibooks:What is Wikibooks/Unstable
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Wikibooks is a collection of free open-content textbooks, supplementary texts and annotated texts that anyone can edit. This page defines English Wikibooks' basic project scope which all submitted materials should aim to meet.
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Wikibooks materials are
- Free. They are released under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License without invariant sections, front-cover or back-cover texts.
- Open. They can be edited by anyone with an Internet connection. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then do not submit it to Wikibooks.
- Balanced. They maintain a neutral point of view (NPOV) by providing accurate and balanced information that anyone can independently verify through established and respected sources or through reasonable and safe reproduction. For original or primary research use peer-reviewed journals or other websites instead, such as Academia Wikia.
- Educational. They are suitable for learning and teaching class or course curricula, and/or for self-learning. Materials are written for fluent English language readers (for writing free textbooks in other language see the Wikibooks portal page) and when appropriate, follow published educational standards.
- Structured. They are organized to build knowledge from one page to the next in a presented order and aim to provide a consistent writing style of the same or better quality as traditional published textbooks. Materials also have a purpose or reason for being written, a scope that determines what is covered, and an audience who will benefit. It is considered good practice to explicitly define these qualities, but is not required.
- Appropriate. They may be censored through a community process when there is a question about their relevance or suitability. However this should not be mistaken for censorship. Materials are not censored for there potential to be offensive, unethical, dangerous, illegal or seen by minors.
Wikibooks materials are not
- Simple collections of information. They are more than just outlines or list of quotations, facts, images, or other pieces of information.
- Fiction including novels, stories, poems and other non-factual works. For original fiction use The Fiction Wikia instead.
- Macropedias or encyclopedia articles. Use Wikipedia instead.
- Advertisements. They should not actively promote or advertise products, services, companies, people or other things.
- Strategy guides or game walk-throughs. Use StrategyWiki instead. However, books on video games that focus on design are allowed.
- Dictionaries or thesauruses. Use Wiktionary instead.
- A main source for other forms of class curriculum, this includes tests, notes and class plans. Use Wikiversity instead.
- Paper. At times there may be needs which make it impossible to replicate with printed work, such as size limitations.
- Personal homepages, blogs, mirrors, directories, or soap boxes. This includes anything which does not aid in Wikibooks' educational mission
Wikibooks materials may include
- Other GFDL works and printable versions, if properly attributed.
- A narrative to make the subject easier to teach and understand.
- Interactive features, multimedia files, or links if these are directly relevant to the book.
- Annotated source texts, bibliographies, appendixes, glossaries, reference material, and related example problems and study questions.
Enforcement
Assume good faith. New books take time to develop and cannot be expected to meet all requirements right away. Give new materials leeway and time to develop. Omissions from this policy should not be used to justify keeping or deleting materials. The process for removing materials from this project is described in the deletion policy.
See also
- Related policies and guidelines
- Wikibooks:Copyrights — our official policy on copyrighted material
- Wikibooks:Content disclaimer
- Wikibooks:Original research
- Further reading
