Help:How to Propose a New Term for the Glossary

To supplement the content of the SEBoK, a Glossary of Terms has been created. (To view the complete glossary of terms, click on "Glossary of Terms" under "navigation").

All glossary terms are identified by the word "glossary" in parenthesis following the term (e.g. "systems engineering (glossary)"). It is impossible for the wiki to have duplicate article titles. So, for example, a wiki would not support a content article called "systems engineering" and a glossary term called "systems engineering." Many solutions for dealing with duplications were discussed. The addition of "(glossary)" was chosen for two reasons. First, as authors begin linking to other articles in the wiki, it will be easy for them to differentiate when they are linking to a content article versus a glossary article. Second, when users begin to view the wiki, the same differentiation will be easily understood.

Linking to the Glossary of Terms

Link to a glossary term the same way you would link to any internal page:

1. Highlight the term to be identified, making sure to include the glossary tag ("Term (glossary)").
   1. Glossary terms should be capitalized (except prepositions, e.g. "of", "for", "to", etc.)
   2. Glossary terms are entered in their singular format (e.g. "system" versus "systems").
   3. The tag "(glossary)" must be included.
2. Click on the internal link button (it will insert the correct formatting).

You may also do this manually by surrounding the Glossary of Terms Article Title in double brackets:

[[Term (glossary)]]

You have now created a link to a glossary term.

Note: We have back-end auto-formatting for glossary terms. When have properly linked to the glossary, the term will appear in bold, the tag "(glossary)" will not be displayed, and the term will be formatted in lower case (you will not see these changes in the editor, only in "read" mode).

If you would like to change how the term is displayed (e.g. capitalize if used at the beginning of a sentence or if you need to use the plural form), please use the general rules for changing a link display, i.e.:

[[Term (glossary)|Term as I would like it displayed]]

Proposing an Addition to the Glossary of Terms

If, while editing a wiki page, you find that a specific term may have general significance and you believe it should be defined in the Glossary of Terms, please enclose the term in square brackets like any internal wiki link and add the glossary tag in parentheses ("(glossary)"):

[[My Term (glossary)]]

This will create a "broken" link (appears as a red link). This will create a report on "wanted" pages for the wiki, while the tag "(glossary)" will flag this as a glossary term.

If the term is added to the glossary, your link will appear as a live link (appears as a blue link). You may now view the page and on the related discussion page add your proposed term and definition, including reference to the source of the definition.

Naturally, if a term is already defined, it will show up as a link to an existing page (i.e. a blue link) and you can immediately check whether you agree with the definition. If not, you may enter your remarks or opinion in the discussion at the term's page.

The SEBoK core team will regularly scan all requested new terms (that appear as requests for new wiki pages) and decide whether to promote the term and definition into the formal Glossary of Terms.