Reliable publications include established newspapers, academic journals and books, textbooks, and other published sources with reputations for accuracy and fact-checking.
Unreliable sources include blog posts and other self-published works, press releases, and social media posts.
In order for a source to be considered verifiable, other editors should be able to consult the source.
Is the source independent of the subject?
Is the source connected in any way to the subject? This is especially important when writing biographies or about organizations.
For example, if you were writing a biography, sources like the person's webpage or personal blog would not be considered independent.
Is the source primary or secondary?
Primary sources include first-hand accounts, autobiographies, and other original content.
Wikipedia allows limited use of primary sources, but typically only for straightforward, descriptive statements of facts, and only if they are published and verifiable without requiring specialized knowledge.
Secondary sources should be the main basis for a biography on Wikipedia.
If you're working on a topic related to medicine or psychology, ensure that your sources follow these special guidelines.
If you're creating a new article, consider the following:
Ensure that your topic meets Wikipedia's notability guidelines.
In order for a topic to meet the notability requirement, you must be able to identify 2-3 sources that are reliable, verifiable, and independent of the subject you're writing about.
Finding sufficient sources to establish notability can be especially hard when writing about people or organizations.
Sources that are not independent of the subject might be useful additions, but don't count towards the notability requirement.
Wikipedia has developed special guidelines for writing about living persons. Please follow these carefully.
Wikipedia has a series of guidelines for writing about different categories of people, such as academics and artists. If you're trying to create a new entry about a living person, please look at these carefully.
If you're not sure whether a source is reliable, ask a librarian! If you have questions about Wikipedia's sourcing rules, you can use the Get Help button below to contact your Wikipedia Expert.
Anderson, James D. The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Baumgartner, Kabria. “Love and Justice: African American Women, Education, and Protest in Antebellum New England.” Journal of social history 52, no. 3 (2019): 652–676.
Baumgartner, Kabria. “Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890 by Hilary Green (review).” Journal of the history of childhood and youth 11, no. 2 (2018): 273–274.
Cooper, Anna J. (Anna Julia), and A black woman of the South. A Voice from the South. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.
Foreman, P. Gabrielle, Jim Casey, and Sarah Lynn Patterson. The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Ihle, Elizabeth L. Black Women in Higher Education : an Anthology of Essays, Studies, and Documents New York: Garland, 1992.
Logan, Shirley W. Liberating Language : Sites of Rhetorical Education in Nineteenth-Century Black America Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2008.
Morgan, Harry. Historical Perspectives on the Education of Black Children Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1995.
Roff, Sandra. “Teaching the Teachers: Black Education in Nineteenth-Century New York City.” New York history 99, no. 2 (2018): 183–195.
1998 Rhodes, Jane. Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century.
Watkins, William H. The White Architects of Black Education : Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954 New York: Teachers College Press, 2001.
Woodson, Carter Godwin. The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. New York: Arno Press, 1968.
