It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.
Authority control is a way of associating a unique identifier to articles on Wikipedia. This is useful to disambiguate different items with similar or identical headings, as well as establish a single standard title for an item that is commonly known by two or more titles. When used, authority control data links can be found near the bottom of Wikipedia pages, linking to bibliographical records on worldwide library catalogs. Authority control is often used in biographical articles because it is quite common for more than one person to share the same name. It is commonly used in other subject material as well.
Authority control enables researchers to search more easily for pertinent information on the subject of an article, without needing to disambiguate the subject manually. For example, authority control is used on music articles so that the information in the article can be easily cross-referenced with popular databases.
More generally, authority control is a method of creating and maintaining index terms for bibliographical material in a library catalog, similar to the Dewey Decimal System. The links produced by the authority control template on Wikipedia go to authority control data in worldwide library catalogs. As an example, the Wikipedia authority control information for Alexander Graham Bell looks like this:
International
National
Academics
Artists
People
Other
The abbreviations in the box represent the following: International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI); Virtual International Authority File (VIAF); Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN); and Integrated Authority File (GND), Gemeinsame Normdatei in German. WorldCat is a global cooperative union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories.
The following authority files are supported on the English Wikipedia:
Identifier
Section
Wikidata property
Appears as
Artists
P3372: Auckland Art Gallery artist ID
Academics
P864: ACM Digital Library author ID
People
P1907: Australian Dictionary of Biography ID
Artists
P4114: ADK member ID
Geographic
P3562: Admiralty number
Artists
P6804: Art Gallery of South Australia creator ID
Geographic
P2980: ARLHS lighthouse ID
People
P10020: Parliament of Australia MP ID
People
P2558: autores.uy ID
Remarks: autores.uy is an author's database, that focus on Uruguayan authors. It was created and maintained by the Uruguayan chapter of Creative Commons. It also provides access to digitized works of the authors in public domain.
People
P4186: Australian Women's Register ID
Geographic
P5818: BGCI garden ID
National
P1015: NORAF ID
Remarks: BIBSYS is a supplier of library and information systems for all Norwegian university Libraries, the National Library of Norway, college libraries, and a number of research libraries and institutions.
Other
P2092: Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur ID
People
P865: BMLO ID
National
P1890: CCAB ID
National
P950: National Library of Spain ID
Remarks: National Library of Spain (BNE: Biblioteca Nacional de España) is a major public library, the largest in Spain.
National
P268: Bibliothèque nationale de France ID
Remarks: Authority data of people listed in the general catalogue of the National Library of France
National
P268: Bibliothèque nationale de France ID
National
P3788: BNMM authority ID
Academics
P428: botanist author abbreviation
Remarks: Author citation (botany): standard form (official abbreviation) of a personal name for use in an author citation (only for names of algae, fungi and plants). Links to page at International Plant Names Index (IPNI).
People
P651: Biografisch Portaal van Nederland ID
Remarks: Dutch project with material for 40,000 digitized biographies, including former colonies of the Netherlands.
Artists
P5226: BRAHMS artist ID
Remarks: Identifier of an artist in the B.R.A.H.M.S. (Base Relationnelle d'Articles Hypertextes sur la Musique du 20e Siècle database), by the IRCAM
Other
P5302: BRAHMS work ID
Remarks: Identifier for a musical work in the B.R.A.H.M.S. (Base Relationnelle d'Articles Hypertextes sur la Musique du 20e Siècle database) database, by the IRCAM
National
P9984: CANTIC ID
Geographic
P3920: Canadian Coastguard Lighthouse ID
Remarks: Identifier from one of 4 volumes of List of Lights, Buoys and Fog Signals issued by the Canadian Coast Guard.
Academics
P271: NACSIS-CAT author ID
Remarks: CiNii is a bibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries. It is maintained by the National Institute of Informatics.
People
P1908: CWGC person ID
Artists
P1707: DAAO ID
Geographic
P4038: Danish List of Lights and Fog signals ID
Other
P8671: Deutsche Bahn station code
Remarks: Deutsche Bahn station code, identifier for train stations and other operating points used by Deutsche Bahn
People
P1986: Treccani's Biographical Dictionary of Italian People ID
Academics
P2456: DBLP author ID
People
P11646: Deutsche Synchronkartei person ID
Remarks: Online database of voice actors in film and television productions
People
P6829: Dictionary of Irish Biography ID
Artists
P2349: Stuttgart Database of Scientific Illustrators ID
People
P7902: Deutsche Biographie (GND) ID
Geographic
P9725: EBIDAT ID
Remarks: Identifier for an entry in the castles inventory database EBIDAT
Artists
P8381: Emmys person ID
Other
P4613: Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine ID
Geographic
P4535: EUTA theatre ID
People
P4534: EUTA person ID
International
P2163: FAST ID
Geographic
P4143: Finnish List of Lights ID
Artists
P6792: Find NZ Artists ID
National
P227: GND ID
Remarks: Authority data on people, corporations and subjects from the German National Library (DNB)
Academics
P1960: Google Scholar author ID
Artists
P7303: Grammy Awards artist ID
Geographic
P1886: Global Volcanism Program ID
Other
P902: HDS ID
Remarks: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland.
People
P1146: World Athletics athlete ID
Remarks: The IAAF athlete database lists information about sport of athletics competitors.
National
P396: SBN author ID
Remarks: Central Institute for the Union Catalogue (ICCU: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico) is an Italian government agency created to build a single catalog of all the libraries in the nation. It manages National Library Service (Servizio bibliotecario nazionale).
Artists
P1736: Information Center for Israeli Art artist ID
Other
P9070: Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine ID
People
P791: ISIL
Remarks: Libraries, museums and archives, decentralized national databases.
International
P213: ISNI
Remarks: ISNI is a method for uniquely identifying the public identities of contributors to media content such as books, TV programmes, and newspaper articles. Please take care not to confuse ISNI and ORCID identifiers.
National
P8189: National Library of Israel J9U ID
Other
P347: Joconde work ID
Other
P716: JPL Small-Body Database SPK-ID
National
P8980: KANTO ID
National
P11249: KBR person ID
Geographic
P3407: Klosterdatenbank ID
Artists
P1248: KulturNav-ID
Remarks: KulturNav is a Norwegian cloud-based software service, allowing users to create, manage and distribute name authorities and terminology, focusing on the needs of museums and other cultural heritage institutions. The software is developed by KulturIT ANS and the development project is funded by the Arts Council Norway.
National
P244: Library of Congress authority ID
Remarks: See Wikipedia:Authority control#LCCN for formatting instructions
Academics
P10299: Leopoldina member ID (new)
Artists
P9692: LexM ID
Remarks: Identifier for a musician in the Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit
National
P5587: Libris-URI
Other
P886: Lexicon istoric retic ID
Remarks: Lexicon Istoric Retic (LIR) is a two volume version with a selection of articles published in Romansh.
National
P1368: National Library of Latvia ID
Geographic
P3863: Italian Navy Lighthouses and Beacons ID
Geographic
P3601: MarineTraffic Lighthouse ID
Academics
P4955: MR Author ID
Artists
P434: MusicBrainz artist ID
Remarks: MusicBrainz is an open music encyclopedia that collects music metadata and makes it available to the public.
Geographic
P982: MusicBrainz area ID
Other
P1330: MusicBrainz instrument ID
Other
P966: MusicBrainz label ID
Geographic
P1004: MusicBrainz place ID
Other
P436: MusicBrainz release group ID
Other
P1407: MusicBrainz series ID
Other
P435: MusicBrainz work ID
Geographic
P380: Mérimée ID
Academics
P549: Mathematics Genealogy Project ID
Remarks: Mathematics Genealogy Project is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.
Artists
P2174: Museum of Modern Art artist ID
Minor Planet Center Database [Wikidata]
Other
P5736: Minor Planet Center body ID
Artists
P2268: Musée d'Orsay artist ID
Other
P1225: U.S. National Archives Identifier
Remarks: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records.
Artists
P5368: National Gallery of Canada artist ID
Geographic
P2484: NCES school ID
National
P1048: NCL ID
Remarks: National Central Library is the national library of Taiwan, Republic of China.
National
P349: NDL Authority ID
Remarks: Authority data listed in the catalog of the national library of Japan. Search also available via VIAF.
Geographic
P3563: NGA lighthouse ID
Artists
P2041: National Gallery of Victoria artist ID
National
P691: NL CR AUT ID
Remarks: National Library of the Czech Republic (Národní knihovna České republiky) is the central library of the Czech Republic.
National
P409: Libraries Australia ID
Remarks: NLA Trove's People and Organisation view allows the discovery of biographical and other contextual information about people and organisations. Search also available via VIAF.
National
P3348: National Library of Greece ID
National
P5034: National Library of Korea ID
National
P1003: National Library of Romania ID
Geographic
P4055: Norwegian List of Lights ID
National
P1375: NSK ID
National
P1006: Nationale Thesaurus voor Auteursnamen ID
Geographic
P3223: Online List of Lights ID
Academics
P496: ORCID iD
Remarks: Authority data on researchers, academics, etc. The ID range is a subset of the ISNI range. For free text links (for example when mentioning a person on page which is not about them), it is also possible to use {{ORCID}}. Authors—including Wikipedia editors—may obtain an ORCID by signing up at orcid.org/register. Please take care not to confuse ORCID and ISNI identifiers.
Artists
P2750: Photographers’ Identities Catalog ID
Remarks: PIC is a photographer's database. It is maintained by the New York Public Library.
Pleiades [Wikidata]
Geographic
P1584: Pleiades ID
Remarks: Pleiades is a joint project of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University and the Ancient World Mapping Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
National
P7293: PLWABN ID
National
P1005: Portuguese National Library author ID
Geographic
P4423: Portuguese lighthouse ID
National
P1695: NLP ID (old)
Academics
P3233: PhilPeople profile
Artists
P5321: Museo del Prado artist ID
Academics
P3829: Publons author ID
Academics
P1053: ResearcherID
Remarks: An identifying system for scientific authors. The system was introduced in January 2008 by Thomson Reuters. The combined use of the digital object identifier with the ResearcherID allows for a unique association of authors and scientific articles.
Other
P5504: RISM ID
Artists
P650: RKDartists ID
Remarks: RKDartists is an online database using a controlled vocabulary currently containing around 200,000+ names and other information about artists. Names in RKDartists may include given names, pseudonyms, variant spellings, names in multiple languages, and names that have changed over time (e.g., married names).
RKDimages [Wikidata]
Other
P350: RKDimages ID
National
P947: RSL ID (person)
Remarks: Russian State Library (Российская государственная библиотека) is the national library of Russia.
Academics
P1153: Scopus author ID
Remarks: SciVerse Scopus is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 19,500 titles from over 5,000 international publishers, of which 16,500 are peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences (including arts and humanities).
National
P906: SELIBR ID
Remarks: Authority data from the National Library of Sweden
Artists
P781: SIKART ID
Remarks: SIKART is a biographical dictionary and a database on visual art in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is published online by the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIAR).
Other
P3430: SNAC ARK ID
Artists
P4581: Städel Museum artist ID
Geographic
P5288: StadiumDB ID
Geographic
P454: Structurae structure ID
People
P2418: Structurae person ID
Other
P269: IdRef ID
Remarks: Authority data of people listed in the general catalogue of the University Documentation System of France. Also available from English-speaking catalog (search author, click one book, click author name, take PPN= value of the URL)
People
P1045: Sycomore ID
Other
P1323: Terminologia Anatomica 98 ID
Other
P7314: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi ID
Other
P3544: Te Papa agent ID
Other
P1362: Theaterlexikon der Schweiz ID
Remarks: Theaterlexikon der Schweiz (TLS) is an encyclopedia about theatre in Switzerland. It was developed by the Institute of Theatre Studies of the University of Berne.
People
P1315: NLA Trove people ID
People
P6213: UK Parliament ID
Remarks: UK parliament member data
Artists
P245: Union List of Artist Names ID
Remarks: ULAN is an online database using a controlled vocabulary currently containing around 293,000 names and other information about artists. Names in ULAN may include given names, pseudonyms, variant spellings, names in multiple languages, and names that have changed over time (e.g., married names).
Geographic
P3723: USCG lighthouse ID
People
P1157: US Congress Bio ID
Remarks: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress is a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress and its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates from territories and the District of Columbia and Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
National
P8034: Vatican Library VcBA ID
Remarks: Vatican Library document data
International
P214: VIAF ID
Remarks: International authority data from the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)
Geographic
P3993: Vitaskrá ID
International
P10832: WorldCat Entities ID
Remarks: WorldCat Entities for persons and works, by OCLC
Geographic
P3326: World Waterfall Database ID
Academics
P1556: zbMATH author ID
