It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.
This page in a nutshell: Be careful to verify, when adding references to an article to establish notability, that the subject referenced is actually the one the article is about, and not someone or something else with the same name.
Boris Karloff as the classic film version and Hollywood's interpretation of Frankenstein's monster
Building the Frankenstein is a variation of
original research. Generally, it is a
good faith error by Wikipedia editors attempting to find as many sources as possible about a subject. Often, in this situation, the information presented by the sources is not actually about the same subject, and when mistakenly combined, creates a
Frankenstein's monster (often mistakenly called a "
Frankenstein" which makes this analogy more interesting).
Example:
"John Doe played Johnny in the movie A." (source: Newspaper X)
"John Doe played Carl in the movie B" (source: Newspaper Y)
Based on that, an editor may write:
"John Doe played Johnny in the movie A<ref>NewspaperX</ref> and played Carl in the movie B.<ref>Newspaper Y</ref>
The information may be correct, but there is a possibility of mistaken identity with, for instance, John Doe from movie A being a different person than the one from the movie B. It would be accurate if a source (Newspaper Z) writes "John Doe, who played Johnny in the movie A, will be in the movie B as Carl".
Hypothetical examples
Attention: The following examples are all
verifiable but mistakenly combine information from two or more homonymous people.
Adam Smith began his career as a lecturer in 1748 at the
University of Edinburgh,[1] represented the United States as a swimmer at the
1924 Summer Olympics in Paris,[2] and was elected as a Democratic representative for the state of Washington in 2006.[3]
Jim Jones, a cult leader who committed suicide after carrying out the
Jonestown Massacre in 1978,[4] played offensive line for the Baltimore Ravens in 2001.[5]
Osmar Lins was a São Paulo mayoral candidate in 2000.[6] As a writer, he wrote the story "Lisbela e o Prisioneiro".[7]
The band Nirvana released the album "All of Us" in 1967[8] and the album "Nevermind" in 1991.[9]
Jason Alexander, who played George Costanza in Seinfeld,[10] married
Britney Spears.[11]
Katie Perry is a singer[14] and fashion designer.[15]
George Bush was a NASCAR driver[16] and midfield footballer[17] who was elected president of the United States in 1988[18], 2000, and 2004.[19]
Luciana Cardoso, daughter of former Brazilian president
Fernando Henrique Cardoso,[20] is the wife of Brazilian TV host Faustão.[21]
Anne Hathaway (born 1556), wife of William Shakespeare, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2013 for her performance in Les Misérables.
Top model Cindy Crawford[22] was in the porno film "Anal Addicts # 22".[23]
Michael Moore wrote the books "Stupid White Men", "Dude, Where's My Country?"[24] and "Distance Education - A system view".[25]
Sting is a musical artist and professional wrestler who is a practitioner of
Tantra,
Jivamukti Yoga[26] and the Scorpion Death Drop.[27]
Jenna Reid is a fiddle player[36] and runner[37] who was named the Penthouse Pet of the Month for September 2015.[38]
Michael Jordan is widely regarded as one of the best basketball player of all time,[39] has won acclaim for his acting in movies such as "Creed" and "Black Panther",[40] and was elected to the Irish National Assembly for Wexford in 1927.[41]
Jimmy Johnson played quarterback, defensive back, and tight end in American football, was a head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and an assistant in the NFL, CFL, and college football, and was named the 2009 Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year after winning a record fourth consecutive NASCAR Racing championship.[44] He died in 2004[45] and 2009[46] and is currently a television sports commentator.[47]
Databases
According to
WP:BIO: "Database sources such as Notable Names Database, Internet Movie Database and Internet Adult Film Database are not considered credible since they are, like wikis, mass-edited with little oversight. Additionally, these databases have low, wide-sweeping generic standards of inclusion."
Another reason why these are not
reliable sources is because they build Frankensteins: they are based on trivial sources which makes them susceptible to errors. For instance,
IMDb itself admits that "occasional mistakes and omissions are inevitable"[48] like some profiles which have credits of different persons,[49][50] and people who have multiple profiles because they were credited with different names.[51][52] For instance, according to an archived version of
Mariana Rios' IMDb profile, she was in a 1953 film (before she was born!).[53]
Intersections
A Venn diagram representing intersections of sources A, B and C
Verifiability is a
necessary but not sufficient condition. Let the sources be
sets; make sure that there are enough
intersections of non-trivial
reliableindependentsecondary sources to guarantee that all sources are about the same subject. If the depth of any source is not enough, you should avoid adding it to the article. It's not just a way to make sure the topic of your article is
notable: it's also a way to make sure that the article is consistent. If several
reliableindependentsecondary sources are in a consensus (represented by
intersections) about a statement, it tends to be more reliable. In addition to these, it is also a way to find
biased or minor views: if just a few sources agree about a statement it tends to be a minority point of view.
^Morales, Tatiana (2004-01-09).
"Has Britney Gone Over The Edge?".
CBS. Retrieved 2009-09-18. The new issue of People magazine explores whether [Britney Spears]' 55-hour marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander indicates that the pop star has gone over the edge or if it merely represents the spur-of-the-moment actions of two young people.