Wikipedia:Expert review/reviewing HOWTO

This page provides information aimed at reviewers in expert review about how to carry out reviews.

There are four main stages to carrying out a review:

1. selecting a scientific article article to review;
2. indicating that you are carrying out a review on the article;
3. reviewing the article for factual accuracy and coverage; and
4. indicating that you have completed a review on the article.

The rest of this page provides the standard method of carrying out the second and fourth steps listed above, and provides some generic recommendations for carrying out the first and third steps.

Selecting an article

Have a look at the list of reviews, which lists each article that has been selected for review along with its respective academic disciplines. If you find an article on this list that you would like, and are qualified, to review, do so. (You are welcome to nominate scientific articles for selection yourself.)

Before you review

After selecting an article, it is necessary to indicate that you are reviewing it. To do so, simply contact a coordinator and notify them of your intention, and they will carry out all of the necessary modifications, such as shifting the relevant article's entry on the list of reviews.

Reviewing an article

Fully-fledged norms are yet to be established and developed, since norms can generally not be imposed from the top down in a consensus environment such as the English Wikipedia and must evolve instead from the actions of reviewers themselves.

Remember that the purpose of expert review is to check articles fully for factual accuracy (correctness of presented information, especially in the regards of verifiability, neutrality, and notability) and coverage (adequate presentation of all notable viewpoints).

After you review

After reviewing an article, it is necessary to indicate that you have finished reviewing it. To do so, simply contact a coordinator and notify them of the completion, and they will carry out all of the necessary modifications, such as shifting the relevant article's entry on the list of reviews.