Wikipedia:Related information

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WP:NAVHEAD

This essay states the case for a "Related information" heading when a navigation box appears at the end of an article to (a) eliminate confusion, (b) provide notice that the article has navbox information, and (c) ease navigation.

History

Navboxes have gained wide use for many reasons. However, they came to prominence relatively late in the development of Wikipedia. And it appears that editors at that time gave no thought to whether they should have a separate heading. Accordingly, the Wikipedia layout guide does not require or prohibit navbox headings.^[1]

Benefits

While the concept of a navbox heading is relatively new (and therefore potentially disconcerting to experienced editors), the heading provides a number of advantages for casual readers, including:

Eliminates confusion. Navboxes, which contain internal hyperlinks to other Wikipedia articles, usually appear at the end of an article, separated from the internal hyperlinks in the See also section.^[2] Without a heading the internal links in navboxes appear as part of the external links section (or, less often, the notes or further reading section). A separate heading eliminates any confusion that arises from this placement.

Provides notice and access. Further, as the Manual of Style explains: "Headings provide an overview in the table of contents and allow readers to navigate through the text more easily." Because some articles have navboxes and some don't, a heading that appears only when an article has navboxes alerts the reader to the presence of the naxbox information and allows the user to quickly navigate to that information.

Conclusion

Therefore, this essay recommends using a "Related information" heading when navboxes appear beneath an "External links" section.

Markup

If links to Wikimedia sister projects cause a gap between the last external link and the first navbox, consider using the {{Clear}} template before the header to cause the "Related information" heading to appear directly above the first navbox.

Notes

^ Navbox headings are permitted per Proposal to add a section heading. See also discussion and links to discussions at Village Pump.
^ See standard appendices.

[1] Navbox headings are permitted per Proposal to add a section heading. See also discussion and links to discussions at Village Pump.

[2] See standard appendices.

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