The article was promoted by User:SandyGeorgia 01:46, 23 September 2008 [1].
Nomination - A huge subject and a large article. I have been working on this on and off since the last FAC was archived nearly a year ago. It is a technical and often difficult subject and with this in mind, I wrote
Introduction to viruses which was promoted to FA earlier this year. Viruses occupy a world unfamiliar to most of us; the sub-microscopic, and they are best described in the language of molecular biology—the language of DNA, RNA and proteins. I am mindful that this language may render the article difficult for some readers, but I hope that the introductory article will help them break this barrier. My on-going project is to improve the coverage of viruses and virology on Wikipedia and clearly this article is the keystone. I have used the PubMed database, and four textbooks as sources for the article, three well-established and one that is a newcomer. The images were either created by me or have been taken from Commons. I cannot see any licensing issues. As always, I thank all the other editors who have contributed to this and whose names can be found in the article history but stress that any remaining errors are probably all my own work.
Graham Colm
Talk
12:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
reply
Support I read this prior to nomination, although I am not a contributor apart from a few minor copy edits. It has undergone further refinements since then, and I believe it is now a highly readable article given the complexity of its subject matter. Assuming no major problems being unearthed by others, I am happy to support this. jimfbleak ( talk) 05:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response Thanks for your pre-FAC comments and support. Graham Colm Talk 14:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Support—I think it is FA-worthy and can only improve during the FAC. Comment—A good article on the topic, but I have a few suggestions and concerns:
Responses from Graham Colm Talk
Inquiry: The article is quite homo-centric, is an Influenza "Infection in other animals" type section not appropriate on this page as well? 69.196.145.66 ( talk) 20:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response- I agree with you and thank you for this valid comment. Viruses are a very important cause of diseases in other animals. Canine parvovirus and Foot and mouth disease for examples. A section about viral infections of other animals is missing. I will write one. Thanks for pointing this out. Graham Colm Talk 20:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comments / borderline object for now minor object for now This is one of Wikipeida 1.0's 150
Core topics, so this article has to be extra exemplary. Certainly up-to Good Article standards but I'm not sure if it is A-class yet content- or organization-wise (I'm not commenting on MoS or minor grammar FA requirements):
Responses from Graham Colm Talk Daniel, thank you for this helpful review. I have incorporated most of your recommendations. I haven't changed the Replication section much because there is little difference between plant and animal viruses in this respect. The bacterophages should have their own diagram really, but this would be too much to put in a general article on viruses and it would be better to improve Bacteriophage. There is not much more I can say about the origins of viruses. All we have is the two or three half-baked theories. I bought yet another book on virology yesterday, (the Dimmock one),but this has been of little help in this respect. In fact it has less to say.I I could expand this section a little but it would get dangerously close to original research. I have tidied the section on structure and added a new diagram. I took on board you concerns about the flow of the prose and merged a few short sections; it's not perfect but it is much better. Oh, and I added some in-line citations to the Lead. Thanks again for your valuable comments. Graham. Graham Colm Talk 15:43, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Support For such a complex subject, this is very readable. Well done. One missing small sub-section is Immunoglobulin for prevention of infection within the "Prevention and treatment" section. Do you need the "See also: virology " -- it is linked in the lead? Colin° Talk 17:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Oppose. This article should be species-neutral. Although viruses are an important topic in medicine and human disease, they are also important in science in relation to other species. Relating to other animal species, they are important in zoology, veterinary science, and genetics (transfection techniques). They are important also in other types of organism (in plants, relating to agriculture and botany; in bacteria, relating to biomedical science). For this reason, I fail to see why the main virus article should be so human-centered. My suggestion is that the article
virus describe viruses in a species-neutral fashion (retaining most of the content of the current article) and human-related content should be moved to a
human virus article. In the main
virus article, a section would deal with viruses relating to different types of organism (each in subsections): animal (with a "Human" subsection), plant, bacterial, fungus, protist). --
Oldak
Quill
18:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)
reply
Response from Graham Colm Talk Viruses of species other than humans are described in the article. The disease section does concentrate on infections of humans and bearing in mind WP:Weight, I have gone into more detail in this section because this is what most readers will be interested in. Graham Colm Talk 18:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comment — This is a pretty good article. I nevertheless have spotted an issue that should be fixed: in the lead, it is said that "Plant viruses are often transmitted from plant to plant by insects and other organisms, which are known as vectors." As I understand it, the use of the word "vector" is not limited to plant virii, as the sentence there implies. This sentence, and/or perhaps those immediately following it, could clearly use some rephrasing. {{ Nihiltres| talk| log}} 15:49, 17 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response - from Graham Colm Talk Thanks for the praise; it is much appreciated. With regard to your concern about vectors, I don't think the article gives the impression that this term is solely used in the context viral transmission. I could change the "are called" to just "are", but it's linked to a good definition which clearly defines their role in infectious diseases. Graham Colm Talk 18:55, 17 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comments
Response - Thanks Ealdgyth, I have fixed these. Graham Colm Talk 20:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Support—Generally well-written; haven't looked at anything but 1a.
Response —Thanks Tony. I've audited for Herpes: if it's the name of the virus, as in Herpes simplex virus it's upper-case; when it means the disease herpes, it's lower. I think I've got them right. Graham Colm Talk 11:23, 18 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Status - from Graham Colm Talk 15:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC) I have edited and expanded the article in light of the helpful reviews above. Two of Mav's comments remain unresolved. The difficult one is the Origins section. I cannot give the detail that Mav has suggested—it doesn't exist really. I think if I made an attempt to expand this section further I would be in danger of breaching WP:OR. I experimented with subsections of the History but reverted them; they didn't work. I have broken up the text with two images instead. In contrast, joing-up the Structure section, (as suggested), made it too complicated; I prefer to have smaller digestible sub-sections here. In short, I think all the major issues have been addressed. Graham Colm Talk 15:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response - I have made these changes [3]. I have elaborated the discussion on Origins and described how viroids, transposons and prions support the theories without, I hope, introducing any of my own ideas. I am constantly tweaking the text to clarify jargon but it's often hard for an expert to spot. I have been speaking this crazy language all my adult life ;-) Thanks again for your comments; they have helped to improve the article, so it has been a pleasurable challenge for me. Graham Colm Talk 12:47, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Эlcobbola talk 17:16, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response - Thanks for the audit, I will delete the dodgey images and I have tagged my own with an explicit assertion of authorship. Can you or someone confirm the status of the image I borrowed from Influenza? Graham Colm Talk 17:43, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comment Do you think Virophage are too new to be added? Satellite viruses have been known for a while though. Perhaps a section on virus/virus infections in the "other organisms" section? Tim Vickers ( talk) 18:59, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
We have mentioned satellites, (the delta agent), would it help? I not sure, it might confuse. Graham Colm Talk 19:16, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Status - as I see it. Sources and image issues have been resolved. All of Mav's concerns have been addressed, except a concern with some of the jargon. Consensus has been reached with regard to the opposition based on the length of the human disease section compared to diseases in other hosts. There are no issues with the general prose. The was only a minor objection to comprehensiveness, but this was quickly withdrawn. At least one other expert editor has read through the article. With regard to the percieved problem with jargon, I and others are constantly working on this. As Mav said, "perfection is not needed, but a core topic FA really needs to shine well above our competition" — I think Virus does. Graham Colm Talk 17:16, 20 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comment: "The production of interferon is an important host defense mechanism" this needs to be integrated better, preferably near the dsRNA mention. "Viruses are an established cause of malignancy in humans and other species" malignancy is an unnecessarily difficult word. And why the scare quotes around neurotropic viruses? Narayanese ( talk) 17:56, 21 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Status:- as I see it on day eight: The article's candidature is well-supported apart from Mav's minor, borderline objection, which will be resolved, one way or the other, after he has checked-out Wikipedia's competitors, (are there any :-)? I was very pleased to see that an expert on RNA interference, and an editor of virus, has commented on the article. I am particularly pleased that a consensus has been reached about the emphasis placed on human infections. Graham Colm Talk 21:09, 21 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Update - I have had a reply from Dr L. A. Robertson, Custodian of the Beijerinck Archive in Delft, and she is sending me a copyright-free photograph of Beijerinck to included in the article. I am very grateful to her. Graham Colm Talk 19:43, 22 September 2008 (UTC) reply
The article was promoted by User:SandyGeorgia 01:46, 23 September 2008 [1].
Nomination - A huge subject and a large article. I have been working on this on and off since the last FAC was archived nearly a year ago. It is a technical and often difficult subject and with this in mind, I wrote
Introduction to viruses which was promoted to FA earlier this year. Viruses occupy a world unfamiliar to most of us; the sub-microscopic, and they are best described in the language of molecular biology—the language of DNA, RNA and proteins. I am mindful that this language may render the article difficult for some readers, but I hope that the introductory article will help them break this barrier. My on-going project is to improve the coverage of viruses and virology on Wikipedia and clearly this article is the keystone. I have used the PubMed database, and four textbooks as sources for the article, three well-established and one that is a newcomer. The images were either created by me or have been taken from Commons. I cannot see any licensing issues. As always, I thank all the other editors who have contributed to this and whose names can be found in the article history but stress that any remaining errors are probably all my own work.
Graham Colm
Talk
12:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
reply
Support I read this prior to nomination, although I am not a contributor apart from a few minor copy edits. It has undergone further refinements since then, and I believe it is now a highly readable article given the complexity of its subject matter. Assuming no major problems being unearthed by others, I am happy to support this. jimfbleak ( talk) 05:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response Thanks for your pre-FAC comments and support. Graham Colm Talk 14:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Support—I think it is FA-worthy and can only improve during the FAC. Comment—A good article on the topic, but I have a few suggestions and concerns:
Responses from Graham Colm Talk
Inquiry: The article is quite homo-centric, is an Influenza "Infection in other animals" type section not appropriate on this page as well? 69.196.145.66 ( talk) 20:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response- I agree with you and thank you for this valid comment. Viruses are a very important cause of diseases in other animals. Canine parvovirus and Foot and mouth disease for examples. A section about viral infections of other animals is missing. I will write one. Thanks for pointing this out. Graham Colm Talk 20:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comments / borderline object for now minor object for now This is one of Wikipeida 1.0's 150
Core topics, so this article has to be extra exemplary. Certainly up-to Good Article standards but I'm not sure if it is A-class yet content- or organization-wise (I'm not commenting on MoS or minor grammar FA requirements):
Responses from Graham Colm Talk Daniel, thank you for this helpful review. I have incorporated most of your recommendations. I haven't changed the Replication section much because there is little difference between plant and animal viruses in this respect. The bacterophages should have their own diagram really, but this would be too much to put in a general article on viruses and it would be better to improve Bacteriophage. There is not much more I can say about the origins of viruses. All we have is the two or three half-baked theories. I bought yet another book on virology yesterday, (the Dimmock one),but this has been of little help in this respect. In fact it has less to say.I I could expand this section a little but it would get dangerously close to original research. I have tidied the section on structure and added a new diagram. I took on board you concerns about the flow of the prose and merged a few short sections; it's not perfect but it is much better. Oh, and I added some in-line citations to the Lead. Thanks again for your valuable comments. Graham. Graham Colm Talk 15:43, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Support For such a complex subject, this is very readable. Well done. One missing small sub-section is Immunoglobulin for prevention of infection within the "Prevention and treatment" section. Do you need the "See also: virology " -- it is linked in the lead? Colin° Talk 17:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Oppose. This article should be species-neutral. Although viruses are an important topic in medicine and human disease, they are also important in science in relation to other species. Relating to other animal species, they are important in zoology, veterinary science, and genetics (transfection techniques). They are important also in other types of organism (in plants, relating to agriculture and botany; in bacteria, relating to biomedical science). For this reason, I fail to see why the main virus article should be so human-centered. My suggestion is that the article
virus describe viruses in a species-neutral fashion (retaining most of the content of the current article) and human-related content should be moved to a
human virus article. In the main
virus article, a section would deal with viruses relating to different types of organism (each in subsections): animal (with a "Human" subsection), plant, bacterial, fungus, protist). --
Oldak
Quill
18:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)
reply
Response from Graham Colm Talk Viruses of species other than humans are described in the article. The disease section does concentrate on infections of humans and bearing in mind WP:Weight, I have gone into more detail in this section because this is what most readers will be interested in. Graham Colm Talk 18:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comment — This is a pretty good article. I nevertheless have spotted an issue that should be fixed: in the lead, it is said that "Plant viruses are often transmitted from plant to plant by insects and other organisms, which are known as vectors." As I understand it, the use of the word "vector" is not limited to plant virii, as the sentence there implies. This sentence, and/or perhaps those immediately following it, could clearly use some rephrasing. {{ Nihiltres| talk| log}} 15:49, 17 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response - from Graham Colm Talk Thanks for the praise; it is much appreciated. With regard to your concern about vectors, I don't think the article gives the impression that this term is solely used in the context viral transmission. I could change the "are called" to just "are", but it's linked to a good definition which clearly defines their role in infectious diseases. Graham Colm Talk 18:55, 17 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comments
Response - Thanks Ealdgyth, I have fixed these. Graham Colm Talk 20:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Support—Generally well-written; haven't looked at anything but 1a.
Response —Thanks Tony. I've audited for Herpes: if it's the name of the virus, as in Herpes simplex virus it's upper-case; when it means the disease herpes, it's lower. I think I've got them right. Graham Colm Talk 11:23, 18 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Status - from Graham Colm Talk 15:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC) I have edited and expanded the article in light of the helpful reviews above. Two of Mav's comments remain unresolved. The difficult one is the Origins section. I cannot give the detail that Mav has suggested—it doesn't exist really. I think if I made an attempt to expand this section further I would be in danger of breaching WP:OR. I experimented with subsections of the History but reverted them; they didn't work. I have broken up the text with two images instead. In contrast, joing-up the Structure section, (as suggested), made it too complicated; I prefer to have smaller digestible sub-sections here. In short, I think all the major issues have been addressed. Graham Colm Talk 15:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response - I have made these changes [3]. I have elaborated the discussion on Origins and described how viroids, transposons and prions support the theories without, I hope, introducing any of my own ideas. I am constantly tweaking the text to clarify jargon but it's often hard for an expert to spot. I have been speaking this crazy language all my adult life ;-) Thanks again for your comments; they have helped to improve the article, so it has been a pleasurable challenge for me. Graham Colm Talk 12:47, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Эlcobbola talk 17:16, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Response - Thanks for the audit, I will delete the dodgey images and I have tagged my own with an explicit assertion of authorship. Can you or someone confirm the status of the image I borrowed from Influenza? Graham Colm Talk 17:43, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comment Do you think Virophage are too new to be added? Satellite viruses have been known for a while though. Perhaps a section on virus/virus infections in the "other organisms" section? Tim Vickers ( talk) 18:59, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
We have mentioned satellites, (the delta agent), would it help? I not sure, it might confuse. Graham Colm Talk 19:16, 19 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Status - as I see it. Sources and image issues have been resolved. All of Mav's concerns have been addressed, except a concern with some of the jargon. Consensus has been reached with regard to the opposition based on the length of the human disease section compared to diseases in other hosts. There are no issues with the general prose. The was only a minor objection to comprehensiveness, but this was quickly withdrawn. At least one other expert editor has read through the article. With regard to the percieved problem with jargon, I and others are constantly working on this. As Mav said, "perfection is not needed, but a core topic FA really needs to shine well above our competition" — I think Virus does. Graham Colm Talk 17:16, 20 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Comment: "The production of interferon is an important host defense mechanism" this needs to be integrated better, preferably near the dsRNA mention. "Viruses are an established cause of malignancy in humans and other species" malignancy is an unnecessarily difficult word. And why the scare quotes around neurotropic viruses? Narayanese ( talk) 17:56, 21 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Status:- as I see it on day eight: The article's candidature is well-supported apart from Mav's minor, borderline objection, which will be resolved, one way or the other, after he has checked-out Wikipedia's competitors, (are there any :-)? I was very pleased to see that an expert on RNA interference, and an editor of virus, has commented on the article. I am particularly pleased that a consensus has been reached about the emphasis placed on human infections. Graham Colm Talk 21:09, 21 September 2008 (UTC) reply
Update - I have had a reply from Dr L. A. Robertson, Custodian of the Beijerinck Archive in Delft, and she is sending me a copyright-free photograph of Beijerinck to included in the article. I am very grateful to her. Graham Colm Talk 19:43, 22 September 2008 (UTC) reply