Hello, Conflict of interest. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with some of the people, places or things you have written about in the article [[{{{article}}}]], you may have a conflict of interest. People with a conflict of interest may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have a conflict of interest, see the conflict of interest guideline and frequently asked questions for organizations. In particular, please:
- avoid editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, its competitors, or projects and products you or they are involved with;
- instead, propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (see the
{{edit COI}}template); - avoid linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see WP:SPAM);
- exercise great caution so that you do not violate Wikipedia's content policies.
In addition, the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use require disclosure of your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation.
Please familiarize yourself with relevant policies and guidelines, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, sourcing, and autobiographies. Thank you. ~~~~
Comments and requests
editWikipedia is a widely-used reference work and managing conflict of interest is essential for ensuring the integrity of Wikipedia and retaining the public's trust in it. As in academia, COI is managed here in two steps - disclosure and a form of peer review. Please note that there is no bar to being part of the Wikipedia community if you have a conflict of interest; there are just some things we ask you to do (and if you are paid, some things you need to do).
Disclosure is the most important, and first, step. While I am not asking you to disclose your identity (anonymity is strictly protecting by out WP:OUTING policy) would you please disclose if you have some connection with {{{subject}}}? You can answer how ever you wish (giving personally identifying information or not), but if there is a connection with {{{subject}}}, please disclose it. After you respond (and you can just reply below), perhaps we can talk a bit about editing Wikipedia, to give you some more orientation to how this place works. You can reply here - I am watching this page. ~~~~
Usage
editSubst this template onto a user talkpage:
{{subst:Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Question|article=Foo|subject=Fooism}}
Parameters:
- article: an example article to use for the included uw-coi template.
- subject: a plain language description of the subject which is the focus of the conflict of interest