This page documents an English Wikipedia content guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense and the occasional exception. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

Shortcut: WP:NPS

Do not include copies of primary sources (specifically: text, maps, artworks and other useful images) in Wikipedia. If it is a large source, consider placing it in Wikisource. Wikibooks Annotated works and Project Gutenberg are other alternatives for pursuing primary source documentation.

Avoid including entire texts of treaties, press releases, speeches or lengthy quotations, etc. In an article of a treaty, for example, summarize the treaty and then provide an external link (or, if the treaty is on Wikisource, an interwiki link) to the actual treaty. Smaller sources and samples are acceptable in articles. Some short texts such as short poems and national anthems are usually included in their article, e.g. Ozymandias.

Examples of combining Wikipedia and Wikisource:

• Christ the Lord Is Risen Today has an encyclopaedia article on Wikipedia about the hymn and the text of the hymn on Wikisource (as well as the text of a related hymn).
• Gunga Din has an encyclopaedia article on Wikipedia about the poem and the text of the poem on Wikisource.
• The 1793 law prohibiting slavery in Upper Canada has an encyclopaedia article on Wikipedia about the law and the text of the law on Wikisource.

Wikisource has specific repositories for certain types of primary source texts, such as, for example, constitutions (Wikisource:Wikisource:Constitutional documents) and national anthems (Wikisource:Wikisource:National anthems), which can contain translations of the source text into multiple languages (including translations of the source text from its original language into English).