Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hesham Sallam

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 14:50, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hesham Sallam[edit]

[Hide this box] New to Articles for deletion (AfD)? Read these primers!

(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

Fails WP:GNG (cites Sallam's CV), his publication record probably doesn't pass WP:PROF (his only significant contribution was naming a single dinosaur that, although it appeared in many news websites, isn't quite popular even amongst paleontology enthusiasts), and it appears to be used as an autobiography by Sallam himself (a User:Mansourasaurus used the edit summary "adding more of my bio" on this page) Atlantis536 (talk) 12:52, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Egypt-related deletion discussions. Spiderone 13:53, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - this is of course not an argument based on Wikipedia guidelines, but I think that since we have so few articles about non-western scientists, we could be more lax when it comes to articles about them. Otherwise, we risk being unbalanced in favour of western subjects. Remember, many sources about him are probably in Arabic, so it is perhaps misleading that we can't find more sources in English. FunkMonk (talk) 14:20, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Article subjects should be notable, and should not exist for the sole of purpose of trying to promote diversity. If we want to do that, we can create articles on notable non-Western scientists User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk 14:33, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

We should do that, yes. But I'm wondering if there isn't much more about him in Arabic, but I don't remember what the guidelines about this are. Here are some Arabic articles found by searching his name in Arabic, a Scientific American biography it appears:[1] And various other long features:[2][3][4][5] Maybe we can get some Arabic speaking editors to look the sources over. FunkMonk (talk) 14:40, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

~~I'm not sure, he isn't very notable, plus, his discovery of Mansourasaurus isn't notable either. What do others think?~~ JurassicClassic767 (talk | contribs) 14:58, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'll try a "tentative keep" for now. JurassicClassic767 (talk | contribs) 18:58, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - I have also found an article in German that talks about Sallam.[6]. Between this and some of the Arabic articles, I think that counts as multiple independent published sources with non-trivial information on him, so he appears to meet notability guidelines to me. As far as his significance, he's also the founder of the first vertebrate paleontology program in Egypt, not just the discoverer of one dinosaur. That all said, the article clearly needs considerable improvement. If that improvement turns out to be impossible, I am open to reconsidering my stance, but for now I think we should err on the side of "keep". Ornithopsis (talk) 17:41, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've made a go at rewriting the article. How does this look? Ornithopsis (talk) 00:26, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good to me, I think the video interview could be put back? It also shows significance. FunkMonk (talk) 07:49, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - adding my formal vote, per Ornithopsis. Naming dinosaurs is not the only way to be a significant palaeontologist, he seems to be doing a lot of things to further paleontology within Egypt (which has otherwise been dominated by Western scientists), and he seems to be supporting many female scientists there as well, which is quite important. There seems to be much more relevant coverage of him in languages other than English, so the article just needs a bit of work. FunkMonk (talk) 17:47, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Tentative Keep: Agreed with some of the comments above, but if the article doesn't get expanded as expected, I'll probably change my opinion again. JurassicClassic767 (talk | contribs) 18:58, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've added two of the sources above, there seems to be a lot of good stuff about his importance to Egyptian paleontology and where it is heading. Looks like a lot more can be used from these sources. FunkMonk (talk) 20:57, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The sources do seem reliable and have a lot of essential info that can be added to the article. I can't understand German, much less Arabic, but luckily there's Google Translate, so it should make things much easier, at least in the translations that is. JurassicClassic767 (talk | contribs) 21:51, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Science-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 01:09, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 01:17, 1 September 2020 (UTC)(added to list by Hemiauchenia a couple of days ago.) Coolabahapple (talk) 01:17, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Weak keep. With the article contents only, it seems this would be a case of WP:ONEEVENT. But looking around in the web and according to the comments of Ornithopsis, it seems to me that he does pass the average professor test of WP:NPROF. Walwal20 ^{talk ▾ contribs} 01:43, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep: he is not a western scientist, he is an Egyptian palaeontologist with a discovery, a new species of sauropod, Mansourasaurus shahinae. --Whiteguru (talk) 13:06, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.