What is the process for creating a new Wikipedia page?

Creating a Wikipedia article is a five-step sequence, not a single event. Each step has its own quality bar. Trying to compress them is what produces the rejections, deletions, and disputes that make the process look arbitrary.

Step 1: Source phase

Before any drafting begins, catalog the existing third-party coverage and measure it against Wikipedia’s notability standard. Identify the gaps that need filling before submission, and assemble the source set the article will rely on. Independent reliable secondary sources, not press releases, wire-service syndications, or the company’s own materials, are what every later step depends on.

Step 2: Drafting (sandbox or AfC draft)

Build the article in the editor’s personal sandbox (User:[username]/sandbox) or in an Articles for Creation draft. Structure the content to Wikipedia’s encyclopedic conventions: inline citations, neutral voice, and Manual of Style formatting. The sandbox is not visible in mainspace, so the draft can be refined through internal review before it goes public.

Step 3: Submission with COI disclosed

Submit the draft through Articles for Creation. The paid or affiliated relationship must be disclosed on the editor’s user page and on the draft’s Talk page before submission, per the Wikimedia Foundation’s terms of use. An undisclosed COI gets the submission flagged and often declined regardless of other merits.

Step 4: Community review

An uninvolved reviewer evaluates the draft against Wikipedia’s notability and content policies. Reviewers often return drafts with feedback requesting additional sources, neutral rewriting, or structural changes. Address this feedback substantively, rather than argue against it, before resubmission. Review timelines run from days to several months depending on the reviewer queue and how contested the sourcing is.

Step 5: Publication, or AfD response

If the reviewer accepts the draft, the article moves to mainspace and becomes a live Wikipedia article. If it is later nominated for deletion through Articles for Deletion (AfD), the discussion runs about seven days, with editors arguing keep, delete, merge, or redirect. An uninvolved administrator closes the AfD by reading consensus rather than counting votes. The right response is to engage that discussion through editors who can speak to the article’s notability and policy compliance.