User:SuperHamster/RSP-to-JSON

RSP-to-JSON (source) is a user script that converts the English Wikipedia's perennial sources list into a structured JSON file. This can be helpful for anyone wanting RSP data in a more structured form, for the sake of building tools, research, etc.

To install, add the following to User:<YourUserName>/common.js...

{{subst:lusc|User:SuperHamster/rsp-to-json.js}}

...and save the page. You can ignore any warnings that pop up; once you save the page, the template will be replaced with the correct syntax to import the script.

Once installed, after visiting the perennial sources list, you should see a dropdown right above the table. There will be two options:

Copy with discussions, which provides the complete JSON including links and data about discussions on each source. This is a big JSON array! Over 25,000 lines when formatted.
Copy without discussions, which provides everything but the individual discussion data. This brings the data down to less than 8,000 lines.

Selecting an option will silently convert the RSP table into JSON and copy it to your clipboard, ready to be used wherever your heart desires.

JSON structure

The copied JSON will be an array of objects. Each object represents a listing with the following fields.

Note that some sources appear multiple times in the array. For example, Fox News appears three times in different contexts ("Fox News (news excluding politics and science)", "Fox News (politics and science)", and "Fox News (talk shows)").

name: The name of the source.
link: Link to the Wikipedia article on the source. If none is provided, empty string.
shortcuts: An array of shortcut redirects that take you to the source's listing at RSP. If none are provided, empty array.
status: One of generally reliable, generally unreliable, deprecated, or no consensus
blacklisted: True or false, as to whether the source has been added to the spam blacklist.
discussions: Array of on-wiki discussions related to the source. This is omitted if you select "Copy without discussions" when copying the JSON.
- link: Link to the discussion.
- type: Type of discussion, one of General, Request for comment, Spam blacklist request.
- display: Where the discussion is linked on the RSP list, either inline or footnote.
- label: How the discussion is labelled on the RSP list, usually a year or just a number.
lastDiscussed: The year the source was last discussed.
summary: RSP's description of the source, in plain text (no syntax, links, etc.).
summary_wikitext: RSP's description of the source, with wikitext (links, italics, etc.).
domains: An array of domains associated with the source.

Here is an example listing for NME (as of April 15, 2025):

{
  "name": "NME",
  "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NME",
  "shortcuts": [
    "WP:RSPNME"
  ],
  "status": "generally reliable",
  "blacklisted": false,
  "discussions": [
    {
      "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_26#Rolling_Stone,_NME,_Popmatters_and_Metal-Observer",
      "type": "General",
      "display": "inline",
      "label": "1"
    },
    {
      "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_318#New_Musical_Express_/_NME_/_www.nme.com",
      "type": "General",
      "display": "inline",
      "label": "2"
    }
  ],
  "lastDiscussed": "2020",
  "summary": "There is consensus that British publication NME is generally reliable for content related to its areas of expertise, which include music.",
  "summary_wikitext": "There is consensus that British publication ''NME'' is generally reliable for content related to its areas of expertise, which include music.",
  "domains": [
    "nme.com"
  ]
}

Acknowledgements

This tool was built as part of a grant project to expand CiteUnseen, funded by Wikimedia Switzerland.