There are 6,854,009 articles on the English Wikipedia, and 50,000 (circa 0.73%) have been selected as vital articles to the project. They are organized into five levels: Level 1 contains the ten most vital articles, Level 2 contains the one hundred most vital articles (and by definition, includes the articles of Level 1), and each further level expands on the selection of the previous level, as follows:
The five nested vital article Levels are meant to give direction to the prioritization of improvements of English Wikipedia articles (e.g. which articles to bring to WP:GA and WP:FA status), to provide a measurement of quality of overall English Wikipedia (e.g. what proportion of the most important articles are at GA and FA status), and to serve as a centralized watchlist of English Wikipedia's most important articles. Unlike the list of articles every Wikipedia should have, they are tailored to the English Wikipedia and are actively maintained by the dedicated WikiProject Vital Articles.
The key criteria in determining whether an article is vital are:
1 is a Vital-1 article, while Scientific method 3 is a lower level of vitality. Determining which articles are vital at lower levels often involves looking at the articles at higher levels. For example, since History 2 is of high vitality, World War II 3 is also a vital article, just at a lower level. 3 may be less vital than Science 1, since it is such a critical topic regarding science, covering many science-related topics in Wikipedia, it is undoubtedly a vital article. 3 in "Inventors and scientists", William Shakespeare 3 in "Authors", and Genghis Khan 3 on "Leaders".All Wikipedia extended confirmed editors are welcome to propose an article that should be added, removed, or demoted from one of the Level 1-4 vital article lists (which are ECP-protected from here), and/or !vote or comment on any existing proposal. Any editor can make a proposal at Level 5.
A number of guidelines/practices have been agreed regarding the proposal process:
When proposing to add or remove a particular topic from the vital articles list, we strongly recommend that the proposer review and compare the other articles in the same category to get a better sense of what is considered vital in that area and that they also check the talk page archives for that Level to see if the topic was previously proposed, and what was the resulting discussion. Use the 'VA link' template to allow editors to easily check its location (e.g. Internet 3).
A proposed vital article must exist at a lower level before being nominated at a higher level, as agreed here. For example, a proposal to move the Level 5 vital article Twitter 5 to Level 3 could not happen until it had first been successfully proposed for Level 4. Only after it had been added to the Level 4 list, could it then be proposed to Level 3.
Levels 1 to 4 are usually at their full quota, and any nomination to 'Add' a topic to one of these Levels is often accompanied by a proposal to 'Remove' an existing topic. For example, a Level 3 proposal could say: "Add Steve Jobs 4" and Remove Henry Ford 3". While it is not obligatory to frame proposals as a swap (and not needed if the proposal is to 'Remove'), it is recommended, as some discussions may fail to progress (and be closed as 'no consensus'), as no agreement could be reached on a suitable swap candidate.
A number of guidelines/practices have been agreed regarding the closing of proposals:
Any Level 1–4 proposal can be closed by any editor, including editors who have already !voted in the proposal (i.e. the concept of WP:INVOLVED does not arise in vital article closures), provided it meets the following specific criteria:
Any Level 5 proposal can also be closed by any editor, including editors who have already !voted in the proposal, provided it meets the following specific criteria (these are different from Level 4 due to the greater frequency of proposals at Level 5):
There have been many initiatives around improving vital article quality which are listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles, including:
Rewards for improving vital articles include:
Please contact the prize sponsors for additional information. Remember to adhere to Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, and to exercise common sense.
The following relevant userboxes are available: