Merging duplicate articles

Last revised by Frank Gaillard on 14 Nov 2023

Merging duplicated articles is sometimes necessary and the same topic is occasionally covered under slightly different titles.

It is worth discussing this first with the editorial team via Radiopaedia.org/community

The aim of merging is to end up with one detailed article which is linked to by all other appropriate articles. The following steps are required to merge articles A and B:

  1. choose the more complete of the two articles (let's say A is more complete)

  2. edit A and add content from B maintaining appropriate article structure (see articles)

  3. transfer appropriate illustrating cases from B to A (the easiest way to do this is to use the flag)

  4. transfer references from B to A (you will probably need to change the reference numbers)

  5. delete synonyms of B (save and continue) and add them to A

  6. save A and make sure you are happy

  7. delete B - if you do not have the appropriate privileges to delete the article, contact Radiopaedia.org/community and let us know which article you have merged

  8. add the title of B to the synonyms of A (this will preserve links from articles which linked to B) - this last step can be finicky depending on timing of all the steps above. Once done check incoming links to ensure they have redirected. If not add the synonym again and try again. Contact the editorial group via Radiopaedia.org/community for help.

Exceptions

There are a few occasions where articles with similar names or covering similar topics should not be merged. Examples include: 

  • classification or staging articles: sometimes having such an article as a stand alone article (rather than being included in a longer topic) is useful, especially as there may be multiple classification systems. 

  • articles on conditions that affect multiple systems

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