The Anthology rule is a rule used to properly list anthologic works on this wiki.
Series whose works were all released within an anthology series are considered part of the anthology series themselves; series that received releases outside the anthology, even if the series originated in the anthology, are considered series on their own.
This is done for listing purposes, to avoid duplicating content by rewriting about works that are all already included in a series' page.
An example is the Action 52 series: Action 52 is a series of two game cartridges that each include fifty-two different games, each one with its own characters and storyline. For this reason each one of the games can technically be considered a series on its own, however it wouldn't be of any use to have a page for each one of them, since the only release listed for each series would be one (or both) of the Action 52 games. Despite each game being a story on its own, their release history is limited to Action 52, so we can consider them part of the Action 52 series. This is not applied to the Cheetamen game, though: while being one of the fifty-two games included in each of the cartridges, it also received a stand-alone sequel, so its release history can't be summarized in the Action 52 series, and instead it must be considered a Cheetamen series.
Note that such series can still be considered sub-series to the anthology, so in exceptional cases they might be worth a sub-series page.
Also note that this is not applied to series whose works were all released within anthology works, but they spanned different anthology series, since their release history can't be summarized in one of the anthology series' pages.
Usually the rule ignores rereleases such as reprints of comic stories, meaning that if a series had all its original releases within an anthology series, the rule can be applied even if it had reprints in other anthology series. Such rereleases when notable might create a type 2 link.
For example most of the horror stories in the House of Mystery anthology comic are self-contained and therefore the rule is applied, and when some received reprints in other comics they're still considered "House of Mystery" stories, not receiving a series on their own.
Improper spin-off[]
By extention, the anthology rule is also applied to series that would be otherwise considered spinoffs.
For example Disney published many stories starring characters originating from the Mickey Mouse series, and while those that received independent releases are considered actual spin-offs (such as Minnie or Goofy), some were only released within anthological works, such as Eega Beeva or Peg-Leg Pete, that never received their own titled comic book or cartoon. For this reason, according to the anthology rule, their works can all be summarized in the Mickey Mouse series and don't need a page on their own. Such series are considered improper spin-offs, since they'd be spin-offs story-wise, but they aren't release-wise.
Note that in this case, unlike the general rule's case, a series can be considered an improper spin-off even if it spanned different anthology series, given that stories from its parent series were also included in the same anthologies.
For example Peg-Leg Pete received stories on anthological Mickey Mouse magazines as well as Donald Duck magazines; in the case of an original series this would be enough for the rule to not be applied, however since Mickey Mouse stories were also included in those magazines, Peg-Leg Pete's release history can still be summarized in the Mickey Mouse page, so we can still consider it an improper spin-off.