The following is the official Assassin's Creed Wiki Attribution policy. Assassin's Creed Wiki is not a forum for personal or original thought. All and any information on the wiki must be attributable to a verifiable source, the names of which are listed below.
Although everything on the wiki must be attributable, in practice not all material is attributed. Editors must provide attribution for quotations and for any material that is challenged or likely to be challenged, or it may be removed. The burden of evidence lies with the editor wishing to add or retain the material. If an article topic has no reliable sources, Assassin's Creed Wiki should not have an article on it.
Key principles
The Assassin's Creed wiki does not publish original thought
Original thought refers to material that is not attributable to a reliable, published source. This includes unpublished facts, arguments, ideas, statements, and personal opinion; any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material. It is forbidden to include such information, especially when accompanied with an introduction such as "This is pure speculation, but…"
All information on an article must be attributed to a reliable source, and any material added to articles must be explicitly presented in said source.
Articles must be based upon reliable sources
Due to the rather limited amount of media currently existing within the Assassin's Creed universe, in order to be classed as a "reliable source", a medium must meet the following criteria;
- The medium must be published by, or endorsed by, Ubisoft and relate explicitly to the Assassin's Creed series.
- Information given on an official Ubisoft forum should only be considered canon (see Point 3) when it is published by an administrator of the forum, and subsequently an employee of Ubisoft, and confirmed as fact in said post.
- Information given in any medium must explicitly indicate a view before it is entered into the article; for example, the assumption that an an unknown individual is xxx is not permitted based on ambiguous data.
Speculation or "news" posted on popular gaming websites does not constitute a reliable source, and cannot be included unless supported by one of the above.
Reliable sources
Below is a list of "reliable sources";
- Administrators, or employees of Ubisoft, on the Assassin's Creed forums.
- Administrators, or employees of Ubisoft, on the Ubisoft forums.
- The game series;
- Written material;
- Assassin's Creed: Official Game Guide
- Assassin's Creed: Renaissance
- Assassin's Creed Graphic Novel
- Other material;
Canonicity
Despite the limited amount of material available to the Assassin's Creed series, as mentioned above, the possibility of conflicting information is present. As such, the following assumptions should be made before information is entered into the article;
- The videogames Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II are the highest tier of canon. If any information given in another videogame or medium explicitly contradicts that given in these two games, it is considered non-canon. For example, if Assassin's Creed: Renaissance says it took an individual three days to travel from Venice to Florence, whilst Assassin's Creed II clearly indicates it only took two, the article will cite the game over the novella.
- The canonicity of the mediums is tiered; the highest tier being the aforementioned game. The second highest is the videogames Altaïr's Chronicles, Bloodlines and Discovery. The third, the Assassin's Creed: Lineage short-film and Assassin's Creed: Renaissance novella. And finally the fourth, the Assassin's Creed Graphic Novel.
Quotations
Quotations must be sourced.
Citing a source
Once a source is found for the information to be added, the user who wishes to add the information must also cite it. However, a few key points must be observed.
Introduction
Do not cite sources in the introduction; most, if not all of the information in the introduction is mentioned again later in the article and should be cited within the main text. This helps to limit congestion of the introductory text and keep the overall presentation respectable. If, however, a sourced piece of information is not mentioned again in the main text, cite it where required.
Positioning
Citations go immediately after punctuation and outside of quotation marks, with no space between the end of a sentence and a reference tag. It must be made directly after that which is being cited, so as to prevent confusion to the reader. If an entire paragraph cites information from a single source, then simply place the citation at the end of the paragraph.
Format
Citations must be inserted as follows;
- For the single insertion of a citation, proceed as follows. On the Edit page, enter:
<ref>''[[Assassin's Creed: Lineage]]''</ref>
- For multiple insertions of the same citation, proceed as follows. On the Edit page, this is placed at the first insertion point:
<ref name="Assassin's Creed: Lineage">''[[Assassin's Creed: Lineage]]''</ref>
- This is placed at the second and all subsequent insertion points of citation:
<ref name="Assassin's Creed: Lineage" />
Real-world references
Real-world references should be kept to a minimum, and mentioned only in the 'Trivia' section of an article. The references must add something constructive to the article, and come from a source reliable in relation to the field it is from. For example, the line 'Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a book which seems to counter the very ideals of the assassins. It is a "widely held […] view" that The Prince was written as a work of Satire.' Should be written as such;
[[Niccolò Machiavelli]] wrote ''The Prince'', a book which seems to counter the very ideals of the assassins<ref>''[[wikipedia:The Prince|]]''</ref>. It is a "widely held […] view"<ref>"Lecture on Machiavelli's 'The Prince'</ref> that ''The Prince'' was written as a work of Satire.
Reference list
At the bottom of the article, just before categories and appearance templates such as {{ACII}} the following must be inserted;
==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}