Wikipedia:Topics where Wikipedia is weak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While Wikipedia may have hundreds of in-depth articles about some topics, other topics have very few articles or just stubbish articles about them. This page is intended to help people find some of the topics that need work, with some suggestions as to how they can help out, so that Wikipedia becomes even more comprehensive than it already is.

  • Art: While we have articles about artists, there are very few articles about specific works of art (important paintings and sculptures), and many artist pages (with the exception of popular greats like van Gogh and Monet) remain stubs.
  • Fish: We have lots of articles on birds and mammals, but few articles on specific fish. See Fish or any of the pages it links to.
  • History and Geography of Africa, Central and South America, India. Most of the existing articles are rather stubbish. It may be possible to contact local diplomatic representatives to get additional information. Each country has a list of provinces, but there may be little information about them or about cities other than the capital.
  • Insects: We have lots of articles on birds and mammals, but few articles on specific insects. See Insect or any of the pages it links to.
  • International politics: many of our articles about heads of state and government are short stubs.
  • Literature: Many of the great books are missing articles or are stubs (see, for instance Faust, Part 1). In other cases, great books link directly to the movies made about them, with only passing reference to the fact that they are also books. Information can be found on List of books; most novelist page; and pages for various literary awards (Nobel Prize for Literature; Pulitzer Prize). Additionally, many articles covering playwrights, novelists and poets are truncated, or feature info on their personal peccadillos and history, but little about the impact or evolution of their work. (Some pages, however, have plenty on artists' work but nothing on who they were.) Compare, for instance, Lillian Hellman, Neil Simon, Tennessee Williams and William Saroyan to pages on Carl Zuckmayer and Moliere. Or compare the stubs on Countee Cullen and Vachel Lindsay to personal history-heavy pages on Marianne Moore, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and then look at pages like Wallace Stevens and E. E. Cummings which explain both the person AND the artist.
  • Medical and pharmacology entries are notoriously weak, perhaps simply because there are fewer doctors who are netizens. Examples include laminectomy, robotic surgery, minimally invasive surgery. Stubs include: Category:Medical_treatment_stubs
  • Villages in the United Kingdom: We have articles for major cities, but not for many villages. See the Wikipedia:List of encyclopedia topics for more information.
  • Statistical data, and keeping it up to date.