Wikisource:WikiProject DNB/Wikification

This is a project page to address the issue “what hyperlinks should be added to DNB articles, and how?” Most added links must be either piped or created by templates, to preserve the original text.^[1] They must also conform to general site policies, even if those are not of particularly clear application. Since pages are created by transclusion, the wikification happens in the Page: namespace.

Hierarchy of preferences

There is a hierarchy of preferences that can usefully be made explicit:

1. Prefer links to other DNB articles;
2. Then prefer links to other enWS articles, using a disambiguation page to offer the reader the full choice where appropriate;^[2]
3. Then prefer links to enWP articles;
4. Then prefer links to any WMF sister project;
5. Last choice is a general Web link.

Classification

It seems clearer to divide added links into two classes:

• (a) links implied by the DNB article’s structure, the addition of these being agreed on by the project, running to other DNB articles (call these project links); and
• (b) links that in are some sense optional, and should be subject to Wikisource’s somewhat diffuse general policy of hyperlinking where advantageous (call these optional links).

Name	Type of link	Based on text	Target to link to	Technical comment
[q.v.] link	Project	John Smith [q. v.]	Smith, John (DNB00), whether or not yet created.	Acceptable to create a redlink. Link the name not the [q. v.]. Template:DNB lkpl can be used with a single parameter to provide a plain link to the inverted form. Because the name will not be inverted in the text, and generally is inverted in the DNB the template can take two parameters (first inverted, second as appears in text), The DNB reference will not always use the exact name, sometimes adding dates to disambiguate where required, and sometimes leaving that to the reader. Acceptable to link and then create a redirect when that makes a blue link. Redirecting to a redlink not generally acceptable.
See link	Project	[See Smith, John.]	Smith, John (DNB00), whether or not yet created.	Can be created by template {{DNB lkpl}}. Same comments as before on redlinks and redirects.
Author footer initials	Project	JJS.	Author:John James Smith	use the appropriate footer template for the author
Author page link	Optional	Author name, full or abbreviated.	Author:John James Smith
Text link (English)	Optional	Name of work in text.	Mainspace page for text.	Acceptable to create redlinks and redirects if the target would be a text appropriate for inclusion in enWS.
Text link (other)	Optional	Name of work in text, not a text appropriate for inclusion in enWS, but might (for example) be a work in Latin.	Mainspace page for text, some language Wikisource.	Acceptable to create redlinks if the target would be appropriate somewhere in Wikisource.
Link for clarification (interwiki)	Optional	Any place name, personal name or technical term where the addition of a link is likely to be a significant help to the general reader.	Any sister project page.	Piped interwiki link. Articles should not be overloaded, but have a sparse addition of links.
Link for clarification (general Web)	Optional	Any Web page.	See above.	Piped external link. There should be a good case for such links.

Notes

1. This will not be true in 100% of cases, though, since the link may run to a mainspace page that is either a text or a disambiguation page.
2. There is an assumption here, which is that WS reference articles will link to a WP page on the same topic if there is one. A good WP article may serve the reader better than an outdated WS article; but if the WS article on topic T doesn't link to the WP article on topic T, that matter ought to be addressed anyway.