Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Economy of Iran/archive3

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted by GrahamColm 15:44, 15 September 2012 [1].

Economy of Iran[edit]

Nominator(s): SSZ (talk) 17:41, 1 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because I think it meets all the FA criteria. SSZ (talk) 17:41, 1 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If there is something small you would like to change please go ahead and do it. If you need assistance, please let me know. The idea is to improve the article since past comments have been very useful. The rest is unimportant to me. Thank you. PS: If you think the lead section needs to be rewritten I have the CIA World Fact book content that is perfect (which is available under This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.). I can also assist in updating few small things such as references but first I need your feedback.

Comments by Grandiose: perhaps another FACer could advise on the usage on Encarta here.

May be I should have started by repeating that this article and set of articles do not exist in any place. So it is hard to compare it to a model. This article is setting the standard, hopefully. Wikipedia itself has no FA to compare it to. I was told the economy of India (formerly FA article) was judged on lower criteria (see previous FA review for exact quote).SSZ (talk) 07:51, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also Pistachios, liquefied propane, methanol (methyl alcohol), hand-woven carpets and automobiles are the core items of Iran's non-oil exports. is taken directly from the source (Pistachios, liquefied propane, methanol (methyl alcohol,) hand-woven carpets and automobiles are the core items of Iran's non-oil exports.) which is very worrying at FAC. In any case it's a very vague idea.

This is easy to fix. Sometimes I add things, since the most important part (specially in economics) are FACTS and FIGURES, not prose. I agree, I should have paid clearer attention to this. May be there are around 10 such instance (rough estimate) in this article. From my understanding it is NOT a copyright violation since there is absolutely no originality whatsoever in the prose. Whether I say "the basket is composed of 10 apples and oranges" or "there are 10 apples and oranges in the basket" does not make ANY difference. This is not a novel. FACTS are important here. I would appreciate if during this review people could just make the correction themselves, if they feel this is important to them. Also, I am not sure I understand your "very vague idea" comment. Please clarify. Thanks. SSZ (talk) 07:51, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's the reference for "Since the mid 90's, Iran has increased its economic cooperation with other developing countries in "south-south integration" including Syria, India, China, South Africa, Cuba and Venezuela."? Ref currently 236, here doesn't mention it.

It is just a broad statement. Take a look at foreign relations of Iran and see sources for each country, wherever available. I have updated the information for each main partner.SSZ (talk) 08:26, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You say " Iran is expanding its trade ties with Turkey and Pakistan and shares with its partners the common objective to create the ECO" but the source says "The ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985". Since there is a change in direction, is it that the new thing is going to be inside the ECO framework? Needs clarification

Good point. It should rather read "Iran is expanding its trade ties with Turkey and Pakistan and shares with its partners the common objective to create a single economic market in West and Central Asia through ECO." I will make the correction. SSZ (talk) 07:51, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I can't get [2] to work.

Just a few things, plenty more to examine. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 21:28, 1 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have replaced the link with webarchive. Again if there are things that can be fixed by the reviewers, I would appreciate if you just go ahead and make the change, since it is more helpful. Thank you.SSZ (talk) 08:12, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. I'd like to see an FA out of this, but I examined just the first sentence and found the following: the two citations do not support the figures "17" (PPP) and "26" (nominal GDP). Those numbers aren't necessarily wrong, but they aren't supported by those sources. Yes, this does say "17" (in fact, has the president himself saying it), but the primary source should be used (see List of countries by GDP (PPP)). Meanwhile, the infobox has "17" and "25" rather than 26. Dates should be added to qualify these numbers. If this attention to detail is indicative, there's a ways to go yet. Riggr Mortis (talk) 02:53, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Actually you are wrong. This article pays a lot of attention to details.

Economic data is updated every month. I can change it to make it uniform. Often those rankings go back and forth within a month (I think the CIA World factbook gets its data from the EIU :) SSZ (talk) 07:51, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

- The sentence "US sanctions against Iranian banks ironically ensured Iran's immunity from the global financial crisis" is an exact copy of source 257. (Edit: here is the diff that added the sentence.) Two short reviews have found two instances of copying. Riggr Mortis (talk) 03:07, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please see above comments.SSZ (talk) 08:12, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If this can motivate the editors and reviewers here, NO SUCH SET OF ARTICLES COVER IRAN'S ECONOMY IN ANY LANGUAGE according to the US Library of Congress (2008). For the rest if you really want to get this to FA, then please do a copy-edit. The 6-year work was do the research and make it into a coherent set of articles (~1,200 pages). False modesty aside, The IMF , World Bank, World Factbook and Encarta are very far (despite their institutional resources and the central importance of this subject today) to have produced something similar in terms of content and quality. Please see references given in the article for comparison. Thanks again for your contributions. SSZ (talk) 07:51, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

SSZ, really important topic, and not an easy one given that the sources are likely to be variable in reliability, since the management of Iran's economy is not really an open affair. You might wish to withdraw and bring on some word-nerds and editors who can review the sourcing, then renominate? Tony (talk) 11:40, 2 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea, Tony. I wish I had more time for this FAC promotion. I will seek advise and renomiate in two months. SSZ

Comment I note that this nomination has been withdrawn, but as a quick comment I'm concerned about the heavy reliance on Iranian news reports given that the Iranian media is subject to censorship. I know from experience in military topics that PressTV publishes all sorts of nonsense when directed (I assume) to do so by the government, so I don't think that it qualifies as a reliable source. Nick-D (talk) 22:50, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Military info is different from economic info. In times of wars "truth becomes the first casualty". PressTV is no less reliable than BBC, FoxNews or CNN. They are all under the direct influence of the their respective governments in such matters. For the rest, this article presents the same facts and conlusion as the CIA World Factbook, which is reassuring to a large degree. This also disproves any question about the reliablity of the cited sources. Now, if you have any specific comment, please go ahead. I will be more than happy to correct - whenever your comments are true and verifiable. I can't see ANY at present (and nobody was able to disprove anything in 6 years as far as I can recall). SSZ

Since when are the BBC, Fox News and CNN under the direct influence of their governments? (I bet Barrack Obama wishes that he could tell Fox News what to report!). Nick-D (talk) 08:35, 7 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Off topic. SSZ

- - FAC review closed.***

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.