Open Shelf

Editorial policy

Last updated: 2026-10-28

What we publish

Every full book page carries an introduction written for a first-time reader: what the book is, how its story is set up (without spoiling it), the themes and historical context, who it suits, and notes on the particular edition Project Gutenberg digitized. Author pages carry a sourced biography and a statement of the author's significance. Guides answer practical questions about reading older books.

Sourcing rules

  1. Every factual claim must be traceable to a named source listed at the foot of the page. We use the Project Gutenberg catalog record, Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, library authority files and scholarly editions.
  2. Life dates come from the Project Gutenberg authority record for the author and are shown with that attribution.
  3. We separate the original work from the digital edition. The Project Gutenberg release date is never presented as the publication date.
  4. Where a date, translator or edition cannot be verified, we say so or leave the field empty. We do not fill gaps with plausible guesses.
  5. We do not invent awards, sales figures, reader ratings, reviews or quotations.

Use of AI drafting tools

Editors may use language-model tools to produce first drafts of introductions and guides from a fact brief. Such drafts are marked draft in our content system, carry no ads, are excluded from search engines and the sitemap, and cannot be published until a person has read the text against the sources, corrected it and marked it reviewed. The reviewer's name and the review date are stored with the file and shown on the page. We do not publish unreviewed machine-generated text.

What we refuse to do

  • Publish the same template with the title swapped across many books.
  • Write first-person reading impressions that no one on the team actually formed.
  • Describe plot details, characters or endings that are not supported by the text or a cited source.
  • Present the site as a partner or representative of Project Gutenberg.

Corrections

If you find an error, write to info@webyenilik.com with the page address and the source that supports the correction. Corrected pages show a new "last updated" date.