Write Encyclopedia Articles about Your Interests

See also our guidelines for writing and formatting articles.

We wish to extend a warm invitation to potential Nupedia writers and our continuing gratitude to those who have already started in on or finished their articles.

Many of the first articles we wish to have written will be brief, one- to five-paragraph introductory articles.  We are aiming for breadth first, and then depth.  Any longer articles will also have to be accompanied by short introductory articles.

Beyond this, with the subject editor's advice and consent, the topic and contents of the article is up to you.  We'll be delighted to learn from you.

Here is how you'd create an article for Nupedia.

1. Get a Nupedia member ID.

2. Volunteer to write on a topic.  Please follow the directions on the sign-up form carefully.  If the appropriate subject area for your article is not listed on the page, we will not be able to assign you the topic (unless it's a brief, nonspecialist topic that can be assigned in the "General and Other" category).  We can assign topics only in active areas, i.e., those with an editor and at least two peer reviewers.

3. If you want to write an article in some language other than English, at present, we can only (with our apologies) suggest the following.  Find a colleague who does speak English adequately, and ask that person to both translate the article and guide it through the review process.  You would put both your own and the translator's names down as co-authors of the article.

4. Moreover, you might simply e-mail editors in your areas of interest, letting them know of your availability.

5. The category editor then decides whether to assign you the article topic (step one).  The editor may, in some cases, ask what qualifications you have to write on the article, and therefore it would be a good idea to have completed your member profile.  (This is private information.)

6. Write the article.  When very well satisfied with the draft, return to the member area (but be sure to log in first).  Find a table on that page called "Your articles," and click on the name of your article.  On the page that comes up, scroll down to the "Article body" box.  Paste your article there, and then scroll to the bottom of the page and save your changes.

7. Next, your article will go through a rigorous review process.  You should receive automatic reminders and other notices in the e-mail address you supplied to us.  Please refer to other sections of Nupedia's policy guidelines to learn more about what to do in the review process.  At some point, you may wish to subscribe to the relevant Nupedia mailing list(s).

8. At this time a lead reviewer, whose identity should be unknown to you, will be assigned to your article (step two).  When one is found, then the reviewer will engage you in a critical discussion of your article, or "lead review" (step three).  From the member area homepage you should see a link to a discussion page where you can conduct an "anonymous" conversation about your article.

9. Next, your reviewer will (it is to be hoped) approve your article; then it's sent on for "open review" (step four).  Again, there will be a link to the relevant discussion page from the member area homepage.  Humility, patience, and possibly thick skin in going through this process is good advice--particularly if the article must be reviewed by multiple review groups, as will happen in some cases.  In order to pass open review, your article must be approved by the area editor, the lead reviewer (again), and at least one peer reviewer.  When the editor and the lead reviewer are the same person, a second peer reviewer must approve the article.

10. When approval is rendered, the next stop is "lead copyediting" (step five).  Notices that your article is available for copyediting will be sent to Nupedia copyeditors.  Your first task here will be to choose two copyediting volunteers, called "lead copyeditors."  Again, see the member area homepage for the relevant links.  You can either let them make changes directly to your article, or else make the changes yourself (in response to their recommendations or requirements).

11. When the lead copyeditors have approved changes, the article is sent on for "open copyediting" (step six).  This happens on a publicly-accessible web discussion (like open review).  Your lead copyeditors have the option of requiring or rejecting certain proposed changes made by the public.  To complete this step, the same lead copyeditors must then approve the article again.  If you gave the responsibility to the copyeditors to make changes directly, you'll be required to press a button rendering your approval of their changes before the article can be sent on to the final step of the process.

12. The final step is "final approval and markup" (step seven).  As an author, there's really nothing left for you to do; simply wait for the editor to give a final approval of the article and the Nupedia mark-up crew to make sure the article is marked up correctly so that it is displayed neatly on the website.

13. At this point you can request your free t-shirt or coffee cup from nupedia@nupedia.com!