Wikipedia:No original research

On Wikipedia, original research means material—such as facts, allegations, and ideas—for which no reliable, published source exists.

[a] This includes any analysis or synthesis of published material that reaches or implies a conclusion not stated by the sources.

Rewriting source material in your own words while retaining the substance is not considered original research.

"No original research" (NOR) is one of three core content policies that, along with Neutral point of view and Verifiability, determines the type and quality of material acceptable in articles.

Wikipedia is fundamentally built on research that has been collected and organized from reliable sources, as described in content policies such as this one.

The only way you can show that your edit is not original research is to cite a reliable published source that contains the same material.

Even with well-sourced material, if you use it out of context, or to state or imply a conclusion not directly and explicitly supported by the source, you are engaging in original research; see below.

As a rule of thumb, the more people engaged in checking facts, analyzing legal issues, and scrutinizing the writing, the more reliable the publication.

Deciding whether primary, secondary, or tertiary sources are appropriate in any given instance is a matter of good editorial judgment and common sense, and should be discussed on article talk pages.

Both halves of the first sentence may be reliably sourced but are combined to imply that the UN has failed to maintain world peace.

N The United Nations' stated objective is to maintain international peace and security, but since its creation there have been 160 wars throughout the world.

The second paragraph is original research because it expresses a Wikipedia editor's opinion that, given the Harvard manual's definition of plagiarism, Jones did not commit it.

Marginal cases (such as major AI enhancement or where an AI-generated image of a living person is itself notable) are subject to case-by-case consensus.

Any straightforward reading of such media is not original research provided that there is consensus among editors that the techniques used are correctly applied and a meaningful reflection of the sources.

Basic arithmetic, such as adding numbers, converting units, or calculating a person's age, is almost always permissible.

Wikipedia's content is determined by previously published information rather than by the personal beliefs or experiences of its editors.

The prohibition against original research limits the extent to which editors may present their own points of view in articles.

By reinforcing the importance of including verifiable research produced by others, this policy promotes the inclusion of multiple points of view.

But when incorporating research into an article, editors must provide context for this point of view by indicating how prevalent the position is and whether it is held by a majority or minority.