A Wikipedia biography under your own name
Biographies are held to a stricter standard than company articles, and they cut both ways: a page about you can carry the parts of your record you would rather not revisit.
How does a person get a Wikipedia page?
A person qualifies for a Wikipedia biography when they meet the notability guideline for people: significant coverage in multiple reliable, independent sources, or a specific achievement such as a major award, elected office, or a substantial body of recognised work. Coverage of a person’s company does not establish the person’s own notability. Biographies of living people are held to a stricter sourcing standard than other articles, and paid editors must publicly disclose who is paying them.
A biography is not a publicity asset. It documents your public record, including litigation, controversies and failed ventures, because the biographies of living people policy demands balance. Several clients decide against proceeding once they understand that, and that is a legitimate outcome of the assessment.
What establishes personal notability
- Profiles and feature articles about you personally in independent press
- A significant award or honour in your field
- Elected or appointed public office
- A substantial published, exhibited or performed body of work
- Academic standing — a named chair, a highly cited body of research
- Sustained coverage over years rather than one news cycle
How a biography case runs
- 1
Notability assessment
Coverage of you, separated from coverage of your company, scored against the biography guideline.
- 2
The record review
We look at what else is in the public record, because it will end up in the article. You should know that before you commission it, not after.
- 3
Go or no-go
If the sourcing is not there, you get the assessment and no invoice for a draft.
- 4
Neutral draft
Every claim cited, nothing flattering that a source does not support, and the unflattering material handled proportionately rather than omitted.
- 5
Disclosed submission
Through Articles for Creation, with the paid relationship declared.
- 6
Proof
The live article URL releases the balance.
The specifics
- Standard
- Biographies of living people — the strictest sourcing policy on Wikipedia
- Typical timeline
- 2 to 6 months
- Disclosure
- Mandatory and public
- Counts as delivered
- The biography is live in the main namespace
- If declined
- Full refund from escrow
What we will not claim
- Wikipedia requires paid editors to disclose who is paying them. We disclose, every time. Undisclosed paid editing gets accounts blocked and articles deleted, and it is the single most common reason a bought Wikipedia page disappears a month later.
- Nobody owns a Wikipedia article, including the subject of it. Once it exists, any editor can change it, and a page that exists is a page that can carry criticism as well as achievement.
- We will not omit documented controversy to make a biography flattering. A one-sided article is both a policy violation and an invitation for another editor to add the missing half, less kindly.
- Being successful is not notability. Plenty of wealthy, capable people do not qualify, and the guideline does not bend for them.
Questions
Terms on this page
Last reviewed . Platform policies change; we re-check every page quarterly.