Featured lists are expected to meet the items set out at Wikipedia:Featured list criteria. However, these criteria can feel broad, and there are some more specific items that I generally focus on (or that I've seen others frequently comment about) during a review. If you're looking to submit a list at FLC, reviewing the following items in advance should make the process a lot smoother.
The things readers can see...
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- Consistent format – The easiest way to check for good formatting is to imitate the format of similar FLs. This also makes a better experience for readers; while Wikipedia has no firm rules and formatting can vary between articles, following the patterns set out elsewhere will usually help readers know what to expect.
- Grammar – While FLCs may not be checked against the Manual of Style to the same extent as FACs, they should still use good English. (One common error in my experience seems to be comma splices.)
- Sources – Even if I'm not doing a source review, I'll skim over the sources to see if they look reliable. FAC generally requires "higher-quality" sources than FLC (for instance, FLs may use more primary sources to support individual entries), but sources still need to be trustworthy.
- Also, if a source is used to cite information that came out on a specific date, that source's publication and access date should be on or after that date.
- Infoboxes – If the list has an infobox with totals aggregated from the list, the totals in the infobox should match the table.
- Numbering – Numbers can be written in numeral form within lists, but prose sections (including captions) should follow MOS:NUMERAL by spelling out one-digit and, optionally, two-digit numbers.
- Captions – If images have captions that are complete sentences, they should end with periods. Otherwise, they should have no closing punctuation.
- Color – Ensure that any text placed on a colored background meets MOS:COLOR by establishing a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 or greater. (You can use this link or this template to check.) Additionally, if color is used to convey meaning, ensure there is a symbol to also convey that information.
...and the things they may not see
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- Table accessibility – Many FLs are formatted as tables, so table formatting is regularly checked. Examples are available at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Data tables tutorial, but the key items are:
- Table captions (these can be set for screen readers only if the caption would closely match a section heading immediately above it)
- Row and column headers
- Row and column scopes (note the distinction between
scope=col/scope=row and scope=colgroup/scope=rowgroup)
- Sorting – If a table is sortable, it may be necessary to add sort keys manually to ensure the most logical format is used (see Help:Sortable tables). Examples:
- If an entry starts with an article ("a", "an", or "the", or the equivalent in a foreign language), that word should be omitted from the sort key.
- Names should sort by family name or surname (if the individual uses one).
- Dates in day-month-year or month-day-year format will automatically sort in chronological order, but dates in month-year format will not.
- Images – All images should use alt text.
Other tips
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- Archiving sources – This is not a requirement, but it's a good idea to add archived links to online sources. The easiest way to do this is to run InternetArchiveBot on the list.
- Duplicate links – Per MOS:DUPLINK, a typical article generally uses a wikilink only at the topic's first occurrence. However, lists are often not read from top to bottom, so it may be good to link items in a list every time they appear.
- Cells spanning multiple rows – I'll admit this is more of a personal preference: In some tables formatted as lists (e.g., lists of awards), cells should generally not span more rows than the cells to their left, with an exception for reference columns. This better conveys hierarchy and makes it easier to read a list from left to right. Examples:
