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Wikipedia:Citing sourcesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This page is specifically about how to craft references for Wikipedia articles. For the Wikipedia articleabout citations in intellectual work, school papers, etc., see Citation.For information about citing Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia.For information on referencing citations in Wikipedia articles, see footnotes, inline citation and referencingfor beginners.

"WP:CS" redirects here. For the essay about using common sense, see WP:UCS.

This page documents an English Wikipedia content guideline. It is agenerally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though itis best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply.Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt,discuss first on the talk page.

A citation, or reference, uniquely identifies a source of information:

Ritter, Ron. The Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 1.

Citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which an article is based. In most cases citations appear inthe form of footnotes, although they can also appear within the body of an article. Citations indicated by asuperscript number or other means in a line of text are called inline citations.

Wikipedia's Verifiability policy requires inline citations for any material challenged or likely to be challenged,and for all quotations, anywhere in article space. However, editors are advised to provide citations for allmaterial added to Wikipedia; any unsourced material risks being unexpectedly challenged or eventuallyremoved.

This page explains how to place and format citations. Each article should use the same citation methodthroughout; if an article already has citations, adopt the method in use or seek consensus on the talk page beforechanging it (this principle is known as WP:CITEVAR). While you should try to write citations correctly, whatmatters most is that you provide enough information to identify the source. Others will improve the formattingif needed. Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners provides a brief introduction on how to reference Wikipediaarticles.

Contents

1 Types of citation

2 When and why to cite sources

3 Inline citations

3.1 Footnotes

3.1.1 How to create the list of citations

Wikipedia:Citing sources - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources

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Other guideline categories

Naming conventions · Notability

3.1.2 How to place an inline citation

using ref tags

3.1.3 Repeated citations

3.1.4 Separating citations from

explanatory footnotes

3.1.5 Avoiding clutter

3.1.6 Citing multiple pages of the same

source

3.1.7 Short citations

3.2 Parenthetical referencing

4 General references

5 What information to include

5.1 Examples

5.1.1 Books

5.1.2 Journal articles

5.1.3 Newspaper articles

5.1.4 Webpages

5.1.5 Sound recordings

5.1.6 Film, TV, or video recordings

5.2 Identifying parts of a source

5.2.1 Books and print articles

5.2.2 Audio and video sources

5.3 Links and ID numbers

5.3.1 Linking to Google Books pages

5.3.2 Linking to PDF files

5.3.3 Convenience links

5.4 Say where you read it

5.5 Reprints of older publications

5.6 Additional annotation

6 Citation style

6.1 Variation in citation methods

6.1.1 To be avoided

6.1.2 Generally considered helpful

7 Handling links in citations

7.1 Avoid embedded links

7.2 Convenience links

7.3 Indicating availability


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7.4 Links to sources

7.5 Preventing and repairing dead links

8 Text–source integrity

9 Bundling citations

10 In-text attribution

11 Dealing with unsourced material

12 Citation templates and tools

12.1 Metadata

12.2 Citation processing tools

12.3 Programming tools

12.4 Citation export tools

12.5 Reference management software

13 See also

14 Notes

15 Further reading

Types of citation

A full citation fully identifies a reliable source and, where applicable, the place in that source (such as a

page number) where the information in question can be found. For example: Rawls, John. A Theory of

Justice. Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 1. This type of citation is usually given as a footnote, and

is the most commonly used citation method in Wikipedia articles.

An inline citation means any citation added close to the material it supports, for example after the

sentence or paragraph, normally in the form of a footnote.

A short citation is an inline citation that identifies the place in a source where specific information can be

found, but without giving full details of the source – these will have been provided in a full bibliographic

citation either in an earlier footnote, or in a separate section. For example: Rawls 1971, p. 1. This system

is used in some articles; the short citations may be given either as footnotes, or as parenthetical references

within the text.

In-text attribution involves adding the source of a statement to the article text, such as Rawls argues that

X.[5] This is done whenever a writer or speaker should be credited, such as with quotations, close

paraphrasing, or statements of opinion or uncertain fact. The in-text attribution does not give full details

of the source – this is done in a footnote in the normal way. See In-text attribution below.

A general reference is a citation that supports content, but is not linked to any particular piece of material

in the article through an inline citation. General references are usually listed at the end of the article in a

References section. They are usually found in underdeveloped articles, especially when all article content


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is supported by a single source. They may also be listed in more developed articles as a supplement to

inline citations.

When and why to cite sources

By citing sources for Wikipedia content, you enable users to verify that the information given is supported byreliable sources, thus improving the credibility of Wikipedia while showing that the content is not originalresearch. You also help users find additional information on the subject; and you avoid plagiarising the sourceof your words or ideas by giving attribution.

In particular, sources are required for material that is challenged or likely to be challenged – if reliable sourcescannot be found for challenged material, it is likely to be removed from the article. Sources are also requiredwhen quoting someone, with or without quotation marks, or closely paraphrasing a source. However, the citingof sources is not limited to those situations – editors are always encouraged to add or improve citations for anyinformation contained in an article.

Citations are especially desirable for statements about living persons, particularly when the statements arecontentious or potentially defamatory. In accordance with the biography of living persons policy, unsourcedinformation of this type is likely to be removed on sight.

Citations are not used on disambiguation pages (sourcing for the information given there should be done in thetarget articles). Citations are also often discouraged in the lead section of an article, insofar as it summarizesinformation for which sources are given later in the article, although such things as quotations and particularlycontroversial statements should be supported by citations even in the lead.

For an image or other media file, details of its origin and copyright status should appear on its file page. Imagecaptions should be referenced as appropriate just like any other part of the article. A citation is not needed fordescriptions such as alt text that are verifiable directly from the image itself, or for text that merely identifies asource (e.g., the caption "Belshazzar's Feast (1635)" for File:Rembrandt-Belsazar.jpg).

Inline citations

Further information: Wikipedia:Inline citation

Inline citations allow the reader to associate a given bit of material in an article with the specific reliablesource(s) that support the material. Inline citations are most commonly added using either footnotes (long orshort) or parenthetical references. This section describes how to add either type, and also describes how tocreate a list of full bibliography citations to support shortened footnotes or parenthetical references.

If long or short inline citations placed in footnotes are used, the first editor to add footnotes to an article mustcreate a section where the list of those citations is to appear. This is not necessary for inline parentheticalreferences, as these appear directly inline in the article prose.

Footnotes

See also: Help:Footnotes

How to create the list of citations


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This section, if needed, is usually titled "Notes" or "References", and is placed at or near the bottom of thearticle. For more about the order and titles of sections at the end of an article (which may also include "Furtherreading" and "External links" sections), see Wikipedia:Footers.

With some exceptions discussed below, citations appear in a single section containing only the <references />

tag or the {{reflist}} template. For example:

==References==

{{reflist}}

The footnotes will then automatically be listed under that section heading. Each numbered footnote marker inthe text is a clickable link to the corresponding footnote, and each footnote contains a caret which links back tothe corresponding point in the text. Scrolling lists, or lists of citations appearing within a scroll box, shouldnever be used. This is because of issues with readability, browser compatibility, accessibility, printing, and site

mirroring.[1]

If an article contains a list of general references, this is usually placed in a separate section, titled (for example)"References". This usually comes immediately after the section(s) listing footnotes, if any. (If the generalreferences section is called "References", then the citations section is usually called "Notes".)

How to place an inline citation using ref tags

Main article: mw:Extension:Cite

To create a footnote, use the <ref>...</ref> syntax at the appropriate place in the article text, for example:

Justice is a human invention.<ref>Rawls, John. ''A Theory of Justice''. Harvard

University Press, 1971, p. 1.</ref> It...

which will be displayed as something like:

Justice is a human invention.[1] It...

It will also be necessary to generate the list of footnotes (where the citation text is actually displayed); for this,see the previous section.

As in the above example, citation markers are normally placed after adjacent punctuation such as periods andcommas. For exceptions, see the Punctuation and footnotes section of the Manual of Style. Note also that nospace is added before the citation marker.

The citation should be added close to the material it supports, offering text–source integrity. If a word or phraseis particularly contentious, an inline citation may be added next to that word or phrase within the sentence, but itis usually sufficient to add the citation to the end of the sentence or paragraph, so long as it's clear which sourcesupports which part of the text.

Repeated citations

See also Footnotes: using a source more than once


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For multiple use of the same inline citation or footnote, you can use the named references feature, choosing aname to identify the inline citation, and typing <ref name="name">text of the citation</ref>. Thereafter,

the same named reference may be reused any number of times by typing just <ref name="name" />.

The text of the name can be most anything—apart from just numeric. If spaces are used in the text of the name,

the text must be placed within double quotes. To help with page maintenance it is recommended that the text ofthe name has a connection to the inline citation or footnote, for example "author year page":

<ref name="Smith 2005 p94">text of the citation</ref>.

Separating citations from explanatory footnotes

If an article contains both footnoted citations and other (explanatory) footnotes, then it is possible (but notnecessary) to divide them into two separate lists, using the grouping feature described in the Grouping footnotessection of the footnotes help page. The explanatory footnotes and the citations are then placed in separatesections, called (for example) "Notes" and "References" respectively.

Avoiding clutter

Inline references can significantly bloat the wikitext in the edit window and can become difficult and confusing.There are two main methods that avoid clutter in the edit window:

Inserting short citations (see below) that then refer to a full list of source texts

Parenthetical references are an established subformat of this, which forgoes the use of inline notes

and simply puts the short citation in the main body.

Utilising list-defined references by collecting the full citation code within the reference list template, and

then inserting them in the text with {{ref|name="ABC" /}} tags.

As with other citation formats, articles should not undergo large-scale conversion between formats withoutconsensus to do so.

Citing multiple pages of the same source

For more details on this topic, see Help:References and page numbers.

When an article cites many different pages from the same source, to avoid the redundancy of many big, nearlyidentical full citations, most Wikipedia editors use

short citations in footnotes,

named references in conjunction with the {{rp}} template to specify the page, or

short citations in parenthesis.

The use of ibid., Id. (or similar abbreviations) is discouraged, as these may become broken as new referencesare added (op. cit. is less problematic in that it should refer explicitly to a citation contained in the article;however, not all readers are familiar with the meaning of the terms). If the use of ibid is extensive, use the{{ibid}} template.


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Short citations

Main page: Help:Shortened footnotes

Some Wikipedia articles use short citations, giving summary information about the source together with a pagenumber, as in <ref>Smith 2010, p. 1.</ref>. These are used together with full citations, which give full

details of the sources, but without page numbers, and are listed in a separate "References" section. Shortcitations are used in articles which apply parenthetical referencing (see below), but they can also be used asfootnote citations, as described here.

Forms of short citations used include author-date referencing (APA style, Harvard style, or Chicago style), andauthor-title or author-page referencing (MLA style or Chicago style). As before, the list of footnotes isautomatically generated in a "Notes" or "Footnotes" section, which immediately precedes the "References"section containing the full citations to the source. Short citations can be written manually, or by using the{{sfn}} or {{harvnb}} templates. (Note that templates should not be added without consensus to an article that

already uses a consistent referencing style.) The short citations and full citations may be linked so that thereader can click on the short note to find full information about the source. See the template documentation fordetails and solutions to common problems. For variations with and without templates, see wikilinks to fullreferences. For a set of realistic examples, see these.

This is how short citations look in the edit box:

The Sun is pretty big,<ref>Miller 2005, p. 23.</ref> but the Moon is not so

big.<ref>Brown 2006, p. 46.</ref> The Sun is also quite hot.<ref>Miller 2005,

p. 34.</ref>

== Notes ==

{{Reflist}}

== References ==

*Brown, Rebecca (2006). "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 51(78).

*Miller, Edward (2005). ''The Sun''. Academic Press.

This is how they look in the article:

The Sun is pretty big,[1] but the Moon is not so big.[2] The Sun is also quite hot.[3]

Notes

^ Miller 2005, p. 23.1.

^ Brown 2006, p. 46.2.

^ Miller 2005, p. 34.3.


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References

Brown, Rebecca (2006). "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78).

Miller, Edward (2005). The Sun. Academic Press.

Shortened notes using titles rather than publication dates would look like this in the article:

Notes

^ Miller, The Sun, p. 23.1.

^ Brown, "Size of the Moon", p. 46.2.

^ Miller, The Sun, p. 34.3.

When using manual links it is easy to introduce errors such as duplicate anchors and unused references. Thescript User:Ucucha/HarvErrors will show many related errors. Duplicate anchors may be found by using theW3C Markup Validation Service.

Parenthetical referencing

Further information: Wikipedia:Parenthetical referencing

While most articles use footnote citations as described in the above sections, some articles use a parentheticalreferencing style. Here, short citations in parentheses, such as (Smith 2010, p. 1), are placed within the articletext itself. Full details of each source used are given in a full citation, e.g., Smith, John. Name of Book.Cambridge University Press, 2010. The full citations are listed in alphabetical order, according to the authors'surnames, at the end of the article in a "References" section.

Several forms of short citation are used in Wikipedia; see Short citations above. The inline citation and fullcitation may be linked using a template (see linking inline and full citations); as with other citation templates,these should not be added to articles without consensus.

This is how it looks in the edit box:


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The Sun is pretty big (Miller 2005, p. 1), but the Moon is not so big (Brown

2006, p. 2). The Sun is also quite hot (Miller 2005, p. 3).

== References ==

*Brown, R (2006). "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 51(78).

*Miller, E (2005). ''The Sun'', Academic Press.

This is how it looks in the article:

The Sun is pretty big (Miller 2005, p. 1), but the Moon is not so big (Brown 2006, p. 2). TheSun is also quite hot (Miller 2005, p. 3).

References

Brown, R (2006). "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78).

Miller, E (2005). The Sun, Academic Press.

Notice that, unlike footnotes, parenthetical references are placed before adjacent punctuation such as commasand full stops.

General references

A general reference is a citation to a reliable source that supports content, but is not linked to any particularpiece of material in the article through an inline citation. General references are usually listed at the end of thearticle in a "References" section, and are usually sorted by the last name of the author or the editor.

The appearance of a general references section is the same as those given above in the sections on shortcitations and parenthetical references.

A general references section may also be included in an article that will eventually use inline citationsthroughout if such citations have not yet been given for all the information in the article. In underdevelopedarticles, a general references section may exist even though no inline citations at all have yet been added,especially when all article content is supported by a single source. The disadvantage of using general referencesalone is that text–source integrity is lost, unless the article is very short.

What information to include

Listed below is the information which a typical inline citation or general reference will provide, though otherdetails may be added as necessary. This information is included in order to identify the source, assist readers infinding it, and (in the case of inline citations) indicate the place in the source where the information is to befound. (If an article uses parenthetical referencing or short citations, then the inline citations will refer to thisinformation in abbreviated form, as described in the relevant sections above.)


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Examples

Books

Citations for books typically include:

name of the author(s)

title of the book in italics

volume when appropriate

city of publication is optional

name of the publisher

year of publication

chapter or page number(s) where appropriate

ISBN is optional

Citations for individually authored chapters in books typically include:

name of author

the title of the chapter

name of the book's editor

name of book and other details as above

the chapter number or page numbers for the chapter

Journal articles

Citations for journal articles typically include:


year and sometimes month of publication

title of the article within quotation marks

name of the journal in italics

volume number, issue number, and page numbers (article numbers in some electronic journals)

DOI and/or other identifiers are optional

Newspaper articles

Citations for newspaper articles typically include:

byline (author's name), if any


name of the newspaper in italics

city of publication (if not included in name of newspaper), in parentheses


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date of publication (the "cite news" template places the date after the byline if there is one)

page number(s) are optional

Webpages

Citations for World Wide Web pages typically include:

URL of the webpage



name of the website

date of publication

page number(s) (if applicable)

the date you retrieved (or accessed) the webpage (required if the publication date is unknown)

Sound recordings

Citations for sound recordings typically include:

name of the composer(s)/songwriter(s)/script writer(s)

name of the performer(s)

title of the song or individual track in quotation marks

title of the album in italics (if applicable)

name of the record label

year of release

medium (for example: LP, audio cassette, CD, MP3 file)

approximate time at which event or point of interest occurs, where appropriate

Film, TV, or video recordings

Citations for films, TV episodes, or video recordings typically include:

name of the director

name of the producer, if relevant

names of major performers

for a TV episode, the title of the episode in quotation marks

title of the film or TV series in italics

name of the studio

year of release

medium (for example: film, videocassette, DVD)

approximate time at which event or point of interest occurs, where appropriate


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Identifying parts of a source

For more details on this topic, see Help:References and page numbers.

When citing lengthy sources, you should identify which part of a source is being cited.

Books and print articles

Specify the page number or range of page numbers. Page numbers are not required for a reference to the bookor article as a whole. When you specify a page number, it is helpful to specify the version (date and edition forbooks) of the source because the layout, pagination, length, etc. can change between editions.

If there are no page numbers, whether in ebooks or print materials, then you can use other means of identifyingthe relevant section of a lengthy work, such as the chapter number or the section title.

In some works, such as plays and ancient works, there are standard methods of referring to sections, such as"Act 1, scene 2" for plays and Bekker numbers for Aristotle's works. Use these methods whenever appropriate.

Audio and video sources

Specify the time at which the event or other point of interest occurs. Be as precise as possible about the versionof the source that you are citing; for example, movies are often released in different editions or "cuts". Due tovariations between formats and playback equipment, precision may not be accurate in some cases. However,many government agencies do not publish minutes and transcripts but do post video of official meetings online;generally the subcontractors who handle audio-visual are quite precise.

Links and ID numbers

A citation ideally includes a link or ID number to help editors locate the source. If you have a URL (webpage)link, you can add it to the title part of the citation, so that when you add the citation to Wikipedia the URLbecomes hidden and the title becomes clickable. To do this, enclose the URL and the title in squarebrackets—the URL first, then a space, then the title. For example:

Carr A, Ory D (2006). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030496 "Does HIV

cause cardiovascular disease?"] ''PLoS Medicine'', 3(11):e496.

For web-only sources with no publication date, the "Retrieved" date (or the date you accessed the webpage)should be included, in case the webpage changes in the future. For example: Retrieved 15 July 2011 or youcan use the accessdate parameter in the automatic Wikipedia:refToolbar 2.0 editing window feature.

You can also add an ID number to the end of a citation. The ID number might be an ISBN for a book, a DOI(Digital Object Identifier) for an article, or any of several ID numbers that are specific to particular articledatabases, such as a PMID number for articles on PubMed. It may be possible to format these so that they areautomatically activated and become clickable when added to Wikipedia, for example by typing ISBN (orPMID) followed by a space and the ID number. Additionally, several templates exist to facilitate referencesfrom these standard sources; see Template:Cite doi and Template:Cite jstor, for using DOI and JSTORidentifiers, respectively.


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If your source is not available online, it should be available in reputable libraries, archives, or collections. If acitation without an external link is challenged as unavailable, any of the following is sufficient to show thematerial to be reasonably available (though not necessarily reliable): providing an ISBN or OCLC number;linking to an established Wikipedia article about the source (the work, its author, or its publisher); or directlyquoting the material on the talk page, briefly and in context.

Linking to Google Books pages

Further information: Wikipedia citation tool for Google Books (http://reftag.appspot.com/)

Further information: Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Archive 29 § Linking to Google Books pages

Google Books allows book pages to be linked to directly, where the book is available for preview. These can bewritten in a number of ways, with or without citation templates:

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice (http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA18).

Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 18.

Rawls 1971, p. 18 (http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA18).

Rawls 1971 (http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA18), p. 18.

Rawls 1971, p. 18 (http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA18).

In edit mode, the URL for p. 18 of A Theory of Justice looks like this:

Rawls, John. [http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PA18 ''A Theory of Justice''].

Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 18.

When the page number is a Roman numeral, commonly seen at the beginning of books, the URL looks like thisfor page xvii (http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PR17) of the same book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=kvpby7HtAe0C&pg=PR17

Page links should only be added when the book is available for preview; they will not work with snippet view.Keep in mind that availability varies by location. No editor is required to add page links, but if another editoradds them, they should not be removed without cause; see the October 2010 RfC for further information.

Note that the Citation Style 1, Citation Style 2 and Citation Style Vancouver templates properly support

links only in the 'url' and 'archiveurl' fields. Placing links in the 'page' or 'pages' fields may not link

properly and will cause mangled COinS output.

Linking to PDF files

Links to long PDF documents can be made more convenient by taking readers to a specific page with theaddition of #page=n to the document URL, where n is the page number. For example, using

http://www.domain.com/document.pdf#page=5 as the citation URL displays page five of the document in any

PDF viewer that supports this feature; otherwise, it goes to the first page.

Note that this functionality depends on support from the web browser's PDF viewer. In some cases, the browser


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may ignore the PDF page specification and display the first page instead.

Convenience links

Main page: Wikipedia:Copyrights § Linking to copyrighted works

A convenience link is a link to a copy of your source on a webpage provided by someone other than the originalpublisher or author. For example, a copy of a newspaper article no longer available on the newspaper's websitemay be hosted elsewhere. When offering convenience links, it is important to be reasonably certain that theconvenience copy is a true copy of the original, without any changes or inappropriate commentary, and that itdoes not infringe the original publisher's copyright. Accuracy can be assumed when the hosting website appearsreliable. Where several sites host a copy of the material, the site selected as the convenience link should be theone whose general content appears most in line with Wikipedia:Neutral point of view andWikipedia:Verifiability.

Say where you read it

Don't cite a source unless you've seen it for yourself. If you want to cite John Smith, but you've only read PaulJones, who cites Smith, then write it like this (this formatting is just an example, and the 8 would match with acitation number in the text):

8. Smith, John, Name of Book I Haven't Seen (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 1, cited in PaulJones, "Name of Reliable Source I Did Read" (http://example.com).

However, if you have read Smith's book yourself, you may cite it directly; there is no need to give credit to anysources, search engines, websites, library catalogs, etc., that led you to that book. You also do not need tospecify how you obtained and read Smith's book; so long as you are confident that you read a true and accuratecopy, it does not matter whether you read the book using an online service like Google Books, using previewoptions at a bookseller's website like Amazon, on an e-reader (except to the extent that this affects pagenumbering), through your library, with online paid databases of scanned publications, using reading machines,or any other method.

Reprints of older publications

Editors should be aware that older sources (especially those in the public domain) are sometimes reprinted withmodern publication dates. When this occurs and the citation style being used requires it, cite both the originalpublication date, as well as the date of the re-publication. E.g.:

Darwin, Charles (1964) [1859]. On the Origin of Species (facsimile of 1st ed.). Harvard University Press.

This is done automatically in the {{citation}} and {{cite book}} templates when you use the |origyear=

parameter.

Alternately, information about the reprint can be appended as a textual note:

Boole, George (1854). An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on Which are Founded the Mathematical

Theories of Logic and Probabilities. Macmillan. Reprinted with corrections, Dover Publications, New


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York, NY, 1958.

Additional annotation

In most cases it is sufficient for a citation footnote simply to identify the source (as described in the sectionsabove); readers can then consult the source to see how it supports the information in the article. Sometimes,however, it is useful to include additional annotation in the footnote, for example to indicate precisely whichinformation the source is supporting (particularly when a single footnote lists more than one source – seeBundling citations and Text–source integrity below).

A footnote may also contain a relevant exact quotation from the source. This is especially helpful when thecited text is long or dense. A quotation allows readers to immediately identify the applicable portion of thereference. Quotes are also useful if the source is not easily accessible.

In the case of non-English sources, it may be helpful to quote from the original text and then give an Englishtranslation. If the article itself contains a translation of a quote from such a source (without the original), thenthe original should be included in the footnote. See Non-English sources in the verifiability policy for moreinformation.

Citation style

While citations should aim to provide the information listed above, Wikipedia does not have a single housestyle, though citations within any given article should follow a consistent style. A number of citation styles existincluding those described in the Wikipedia articles for Citation, APA style, ASA style, MLA style, The ChicagoManual of Style, Author-date referencing, Vancouver system and Bluebook. Examples can be found atWikipedia:Citing sources/Example style.

Although nearly any consistent style may be used, avoid all-numeric date formats other than YYYY-MM-DD,because of the ambiguity concerning which number is the month and which the day. For example, 2002-06-11may be used, but not 11/06/2002. The YYYY-MM-DD format should in any case be limited to Gregoriancalendar dates where the year is after 1582.

Variation in citation methods

Editors should not attempt to change an article's established citation style merely on the grounds of personalpreference, to make it match other articles, or without first seeking consensus for the change. As with spellingdifferences, it is normal practice to defer to the style used by the first major contributor or adopted by theconsensus of editors already working on the page, unless a change in consensus has been achieved. If the articleyou are editing is already using a particular citation style, you should follow it; if you believe it is inappropriatefor the needs of the article, seek consensus for a change on the talk page. If you are the first contributor to addcitations to an article, you may choose whichever style you think best for the article.

To be avoided

Switching between major citation styles, e.g., switching between parenthetical and <ref> tags or between

the style preferred by one academic discipline vs. another

Adding citation templates to an article that already uses a consistent system without templates, or


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removing citation templates from an article that uses them consistently

Generally considered helpful

Improving existing citations by adding missing information, such as by replacing bare URLs with full

bibliographic citations: an improvement because it fights linkrot

Replacing some or all general references with inline citations: an improvement because it provides more

information to the reader and helps maintain text–source integrity

Imposing one style on an article with incompatible citation styles (e.g., some of the citations in footnotes

and others as parenthetical references): an improvement because it makes the formatting consistent

Handling links in citations

As noted above under What information to include, it is helpful to include hyperlinks to source material, whenavailable. Here we note some issues concerning these links.

Avoid embedded links

Further information: Wikipedia:Embedded citations

Embedded links to external websites should not be used as a form of inline citation, because they are highlysusceptible to linkrot. Wikipedia allowed this in its early years—for example by adding a link after a sentence,like this [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html], which looks like this. [1](http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html) This is no longer recommended. Raw linksare not recommended in lieu of properly written out citations, even if placed between ref tags, like this<ref>[http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html]</ref>.

Embedded links should never be used to place external links in the body of an article, like this: "Apple, Inc.(http://apple.com) announced their latest product...".

Convenience links

Main page: Wikipedia:Copyrights § Linking to copyrighted works

A convenience link is a link to a copy of your source on a webpage provided by someone other than the originalpublisher or author. For example, a copy of a newspaper article no longer available on the newspaper's websitemay be hosted elsewhere. When offering convenience links, it is important to be reasonably certain that theconvenience copy is a true copy of the original, without any changes or inappropriate commentary, and that itdoes not infringe the original publisher's copyright. Accuracy can be assumed when the hosting website appearsreliable. Where several sites host a copy of the material, the site selected as the convenience link should be theone whose general content appears most in line with Wikipedia:Neutral point of view andWikipedia:Verifiability.

Indicating availability

If your source is not available online, it should be available in reputable libraries, archives, or collections. If a


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citation without an external link is challenged as unavailable, any of the following is sufficient to show thematerial to be reasonably available (though not necessarily reliable): providing an ISBN or OCLC number;linking to an established Wikipedia article about the source (the work, its author, or its publisher); or directlyquoting the material on the talk page, briefly and in context.

Links to sources

For a source available in hardcopy, microform, and/or online, omit, in most cases, which one you read. While itis useful to cite author, title, edition (1st, 2nd, etc.), and similar information, it generally is not important to citea database such as ProQuest, EbscoHost, or JStor (see the list of academic databases and search engines) or tolink to such a database requiring a subscription or a third party's login. The basic bibliographic information youprovide should be enough to search for the source in any of these databases that have the source. Don't add aURL that has a part of a password embedded in the URL. However, you may provide the DOI, ISBN, oranother uniform identifier, if available. If the publisher offers a link to the source or its abstract that does notrequire a payment or a third party's login for access, you may provide the URL for that link. If the source onlyexists online, give the link even if access is restricted (see WP:PAYWALL).

Preventing and repairing dead links

See also: Wikipedia:Link rot

To help prevent dead links, persistent identifiers are available for some sources. Some journal articles have adigital object identifier (DOI); some online newspapers and blogs, and also Wikipedia, have permalinks that arestable. When permanent links aren't available, consider archiving the referenced document when writing thearticle; on-demand web archiving services such as WebCite (http://www.webcitation.org) are fairly easy to use(see pre-emptive archiving).

Dead links should be repaired or replaced if possible. Do not delete a citation merely because the URL is notworking today. Follow these steps when you encounter a dead URL being used as a reliable source to supportarticle content:

Confirm status: First, check the link to confirm that it is dead and not temporarily down. Search the

website to see whether it has been rearranged.

1.

Check for web archives: Many Web archiving services exist; link to their archive of the URL's content,

if available. Examples:

Internet Archive has billions of archived webpages. See Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine.

WebCite has billions of archived webpages. See Wikipedia:Using WebCite.

The UK Government Web Archive (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/) preserves

1500 UK central government websites.

The Mementos interface (http://www.webarchive.org.uk/mementos/search) allows you to search

multiple archiving services with a single request using the Memento protocol. Unfortunately, the

Mementos webpage interface removes any parameters which are passed with the URL. If the URL

contains a "?" it is unlikely to work properly. When entering the URL into the Mementos interface

manually, the most common change needed is to change "?" to "%3F". While making only this

change will not be sufficient in all cases, it will work most of the time. The bookmarklet in the

2.


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table below will properly encode URLs such that searches will work.

If multiple archive dates are available, try to use one that is most likely to be the contents of the

page seen by the editor who entered the reference on the |accessdate=. If that parameter is not

specified, a search of the article's revision history (http://wikipedia.ramselehof.de

/wikiblame.php?lang=en) can be performed to determine when the link was added to the article.

For most citation templates, archive locations are entered using the |archiveurl=, |archivedate=

and |deadurl= parameters. The primary link is automatically switched to the archive when

|deadurl=yes. This retains the original link location for reference.

Note: Some archives currently operate with a delay of ~18 months before a link is made public. As

a result, editors should wait ~24 months after the link is first tagged as dead before declaring that

no web archive exists. Dead URLs to reliable sources should normally be tagged with {{dead

link|date=December 2014}}, so that you can estimate how long the link has been dead.

Bookmarklets to check common archive sites for archives of the current page:

Archive.org:

javascript:void(window.open('https://web.archive.org/web/*/'+location.href))

WebCite:

javascript:void(window.open('http://www.webcitation.org/query.php?url='+location.href))

Wikiwix:

javascript:void(window.open('http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/?url='+location.href))

Mementos interface:

javascript:void(window.open('http://www.webarchive.org.uk/mementos/search

/'+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'?referrer='+encodeURIComponent(document.referrer)))

Note: Links to the archiving site archive.is are not permitted on the English Wikipedia: See

WP:Archive.is RFC for more information.

Remove convenience links: If the material was published on paper (e.g., academic journal, newspaper

article, magazine, book), then the dead URL is not necessary. Simply remove the dead URL, leaving the

remainder of the reference intact.

3.

Find a replacement source: Search the web for quoted text, the article title, and parts of the URL.

Consider contacting the website/person that originally published the reference and asking them to

republish it. Ask other editors for help finding the reference somewhere else, including the user who

4.


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added the reference. Find a different source that says essentially the same thing as the reference in

question.

Remove hopelessly lost web-only sources: If the source material does not exist offline, and if there is no

archived version of the webpage (be sure to wait ~24 months), and if you cannot find another copy of the

material, then the dead citation should be removed and the material it supports should be regarded as

unverified if there is no other supporting citation. If it is material that is specifically required by policy to

have an inline citation, then please consider tagging it with {{citation needed}}. It may be appropriate

for you to move the citation to the talk page with an explanation, and notify the editor that added the

now-dead link.

5.

Text–source integrity

For WikiProject Integrity (which is not related to text–source integrity), go here.

When using inline citations, it is important to maintain text–source integrity. The point of an inline citation is toallow readers and other editors to check that the material is sourced; that point is lost if the citation is not clearlyplaced. The distance between material and its source is a matter of editorial judgment, but adding text withoutclearly placing its source may lead to allegations of original research, of violations of the sourcing policy, andeven of plagiarism.

Editors should exercise caution when rearranging or inserting material to ensure that text–source relationshipsare maintained. In particular, if a sentence or paragraph is footnoted with a source, adding material to thatsentence which is not supported by the source is highly misleading. So when new text is inserted into aparagraph, make sure it is clear which facts the inline citations support. For example

The sun is pretty big.[1] The sun is also quite hot.[2]

Notes

^ Miller, Edward. The Sun. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1.1.

^ Smith, John. The Sun's Heat. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.2.

Do not add other facts or assertions into a fully cited paragraph or sentence

The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big.[1] The sun is also quite hot.[2]

Notes


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without including a source to support the new information.

The sun is pretty big,[1] but the moon is not so big.[2] The sun is also quite hot.[3]

Notes


^ Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78):46.2.


Including too many citations within a sentence may be aesthetically unappealing:

The sun is the closest[1] star[2] to the planet Earth,[3] but the moon is even closer.[4]

So consider placing them at a more aesthetically appealing location:

The sun is the closest star to the planet Earth,[1][2][3] but the moon is even closer.[4]

or

The sun is the closest star to the planet Earth, but the moon is even closer.[1][2][3][4]

However, this solution brings its own problems:

A string of independent citations may also be aesthetically unappealing, so consider bundling them into

one.

Identifying which inline citation supports which fact may be more difficult unless additional information

is added to the inline citations to explicitly identify which portion of the sentence they support.

Maintenance becomes more difficult. When adding more information to the sentence from yet another

source, it may be difficult to work out precisely where to place the new citation. If the text is rearranged

during a copy edit, greater care needs to be taken with rearranging the citations, particularly as the inline

citations will be renumbered during their repositioning.


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For example, if the sentence

The sun is the closest[1] star[2] to the planet Earth,[3] but the moon is even closer.[4]

is rearranged like this:

The moon is closer[1] to planet Earth[2] than the nearest star, which is called the sun.[3][4]

it will be fairly easy to check that the citations support the information in the rearranged sentence. Thisrearrangement is more difficult to check:

The sun is the closest star to the planet Earth, but the moon is even closer.[1][2][3][4]

The moon is closer to the planet Earth than the nearest star, which is called the sun.[1][2][3][4]

Bundling citations

Further information: Wikipedia:Citation overkill

Sometimes the article is more readable if multiple citations are bundled into a single footnote. For example,when there are multiple sources for a given sentence, and each source applies to the entire sentence, the sources

can be placed at the end of the sentence, like this.[4][5][6][7] Or they can be bundled into one footnote at the end

of the sentence or paragraph, like this.[4]

Bundling is also useful if the sources each support a different portion of the preceding text, or if the sources allsupport the same text. Bundling has several advantages:

It helps readers and other editors see at a glance which source supports which point, maintaining

text–source integrity;

It avoids the visual clutter of multiple clickable footnotes inside a sentence or paragraph;

It avoids the confusion of having multiple sources listed separately after sentences, with no

indication of which source to check for each part of the text, such as this.[1][2][3][4]

It makes it less likely that inline citations will be moved inadvertently when text is re-arranged,

because the footnote states clearly which source supports which point.

When formatting multiple citations in a footnote, there are several layouts available, as illustrated below. Withina given article, only a single layout should be used.

The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.[1]


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Notes

Bullets

^ For the sun's size, see Miller, Edward. The Sun. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1.

For the moon's size, see Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon", Scientific American,

51(78):46.

For the sun's heat, see Smith, John. The Sun's Heat. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.

Line breaks

1.

^ For the sun's size, see Miller, Edward. The Sun. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1.

For the moon's size, see Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78):46.

For the sun's heat, see Smith, John. The Sun's Heat. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.

Paragraph

1.

^ For the sun's size, see Miller, Edward. The Sun. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1. For the moon's

size, see Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78):46. For the sun's heat,

see Smith, John. The Sun's Heat. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.

1.

In-text attribution

See also: Wikipedia:Neutral point of view § Attributing and specifying biased statements

In-text attribution is the attribution inside a sentence of material to its source, in addition to an inline citationafter the sentence. In-text attribution should be used with direct speech (a source's words between quotationmarks or as a block quotation); indirect speech (a source's words modified without quotation marks); and closeparaphrasing. It can also be used when loosely summarizing a source's position in your own words. It avoidsinadvertent plagiarism and helps the reader see where a position is coming from. An inline citation shouldfollow the attribution, usually at the end of the sentence or paragraph in question.

For example:

John Rawls says that, to reach fair decisions, parties must consider matters as if behind a

veil of ignorance.[2]

When using in-text attribution, make sure it doesn't lead to an inadvertent neutrality violation. For example, thefollowing implies parity between the sources, without making clear that the position of Darwin is the majorityview:

Charles Darwin says that human beings evolved through natural selection, but John Smith

writes that we arrived here in pods from Mars.


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Neutrality issues apart, there are other ways in-text attribution can mislead. The sentence below suggests TheNew York Times has alone made this important discovery:

According to The New York Times, the sun will set in the west this evening.

It is best not to clutter articles with information best left to the references. Interested readers can click on the refto find out the publishing journal:

In an article published in the The Lancet in 2012, researchers announced the discovery of

the new tissue type.[3]

Simple facts such as this can have inline citations to reliable sources as an aid to the reader, but normally thetext itself is best left as a plain statement without in-text attribution:

By mass, oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and

helium.[4]

Dealing with unsourced material

If an article is unreferenced, you can tag it with the {{unreferenced}} template, so long as it is not nonsensicalor a biography of a living person, in which case request admin assistance.

If a claim is doubtful but not harmful, use the {{citation needed}} template, which will add an inline

tag, but remember to go back and remove the claim if no source is produced within a reasonable time.

If a claim is doubtful and harmful, remove it from the article. You may want to move it to the talk page

and ask for a source, unless it is very harmful or absurd, in which case it should not be posted to the talk

page either. Use common sense.

All unsourced and poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed from

articles and talk pages immediately. See Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons and Wikipedia:Libel.

Citation templates and tools

Further information: Wikipedia:Citation templates and Help:Citation tools

For a comparison of citations using templates with citations written freehand, see Wikipedia:Citing

sources/Example edits for different methods.

Citation templates can be used to format citations in a consistent way. The use of citation templates is neither


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encouraged nor discouraged: an article should not be switched between templated and non-templated citationswithout good reason and consensus – see Variation in citation methods above.

If citation templates are used in an article, the parameters should be accurate. It is inappropriate to setparameters to false values in order that the template will be rendered to the reader as if it were written in somestyle other than the style normally produced by the template (e.g., MLA style).

Metadata

Citations may be accompanied by metadata, though it is not mandatory. Most citation templates on Wikipediause the COinS standard. Metadata such as this allow browser plugins and other automated software to makecitation data accessible to the user, for instance by providing links to their library's online copies of the citedworks. In articles that format citations manually, metadata may be added manually in a span, according to theCOinS specification (http://ocoins.info/).

Citation processing tools

User:Ark25/RefScript, a JavaScript bookmarklet - creates references in one click, works for many

newspapers

User:Zhaofeng Li/Reflinks - adds titles to bare references and other cleanup

Citation template generator (https://github.com/Holek/cite-gen) – generates complete templates using

identification numbers such as PMIDs (PubMed IDs).

Template:Citation/core – a core template used by other citation templates

User:Citation bot (formerly DOI bot) – a bot that automatically fixes common errors in individual

citations, and adds missing fields

User:CitationTool – a tool for finding article-level citation errors and fixing them. Not currently

functional.

Wikipedia citation tool for Google Books (http://reftag.appspot.com/) – converts bare Google book links

into {{cite book}} format.

DOI Wikipedia reference generator (http://reftag.appspot.com/doiweb.py)

New York Times Wikipedia reference generator (http://reftag.appspot.com/nytweb.py)

Yadkard (http://tools.wmflabs.org/yadkard/): A web-based tool for generating shortened footnotes and

citation using Google Books URLs, DOI or ISBN. Also supports some news websites.

User:Salix_alba/Citoid a client for the mw:citoid server which generates Citation Style 1 templates from

urls.

Programming tools

Wikicite is a free program that helps editors to create citations for their Wikipedia contributions using

citation templates. It is written in Visual Basic .NET, making it suitable only for users with the .NET

Framework installed on Windows, or, for other platforms, the Mono alternative framework. Wikicite and

its source code is freely available; see the developer's page for further details.


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Wikicite+ is a program based on the original Wikicite source code. It features extra validation, bug

fixes, additional cite templates (such as cite episode) as well as tools for stub sorting and more. It is

also available for free under the Apache License 2.0 and is open source.

User:Richiez has tools to automatically handle citations for a whole article at a time. Converts

occurrences of {{pmid XXXX}} or {{isbn XXXX}} to properly formatted footnote or Harvard-style

references. Written in Ruby and requires a working installation with basic libraries.

pubmed2wiki.xsl (http://lindenb.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/xsl/pubmed2wiki.xsl) an XSL stylesheet

transforming the XML output of PubMed to Wikipedia refs.

RefTag (http://reftag.appspot.com/) by Apoc2400 creates a prefilled {{cite book}} template with various

options from a Google Books URL. The page provides a bookmarklet for single-click transfer.

wikiciter (http://sourceforge.net/projects/wikiciter/) web interface, does Google Books, pdf files, beta.

Citation export tools

You can insert a link beside each citation in Wikipedia, allowing you to export the citation to a referencemanager such as EndNote. To install the script just add the following line to Special:MyPage/skin.js (applies tothe currently selected skin) or Special:MyPage/common.js (applies to all skins)"

importScript("User:Smith609/endnote.js");

Then save the page and follow the instructions at the top of that page to bypass your browser's cache.

Reference management software

Reference management software can output formatted citations in several styles, including BibTeX, RIS, orWikipedia citation template styles.

Comparison of reference management software – side-by-side comparison of various reference

management software

Wikipedia:Citing sources with Zotero – essay on using Zotero to quickly add citations to articles.

Zotero (by Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media; license: Affero GPL) is

open-source software with local reference database which can be synchronized between several

computers over the online database (up to 300 MB without payment).

EndNote (by Thomson Reuters; license: proprietary)

Mendeley (by Elsevier; license: proprietary)

Paperpile (by Paperpile, LLC; license: proprietary)

Papers (by Springer; license: proprietary)

See also


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Wikimedia Commons hasmedia related to Citation

needed.

How to cite

Wikipedia:References dos and don'ts – a concise summary of

some of the most important guidance on this page

Wikipedia:Verification methods – listing examples of the most common ways that citations are used in

Wikipedia articles

Wikipedia:Citing sources/example style – listing examples of full citations using APA and Harvard

referencing techniques

Wikipedia:Citing sources/Example edits for different methods – showing comparative edit mode

representations for different citation methods and techniques

Wikipedia:Citing sources/Further considerations – information of additional interest.

Wikipedia:Citation templates – a full listing of various styles for citing all sorts of materials

Wikipedia:External links – for information about the External links appendix

Wikipedia:Improving referencing efforts

Wikipedia:Inline citation

Wikipedia:Layout#Further reading – for information about the Further reading appendix

Wikipedia:List of sources

Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners – a simple practical guide to getting started

Wikipedia:Scientific citation guidelines – guidelines for dealing with scientific and mathematical articles

Public Domain sources – guideline covering the inclusion of material in the public domain

Wikipedia:How to mine a source – essay on getting maximum information from cited material

Citation problems

Template:Citations missing – template to add where citations are needed

Wikipedia:Link rot – guide to preventing link rot

Wikipedia:Citation needed – explanation of citation needed template

Wikipedia:Copyright problems – in case of text that has been copied verbatim inappropriately

Wikipedia:WikiProject Citation cleanup – a group of people devoted to cleaning citations

Wikipedia:Bombardment – an essay regarding the overuse of citations

Wikipedia:Citation overkill – why too many citations on one fact can be a bad thing

Wikipedia:Reference database – essay/proposal

Wikipedia:Video links – an essay discussing the use of citations linking to YouTube and other

user-submitted video sites

Wikipedia:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue – an essay advising: do not cite already obvious

information

Wikipedia:You do need to cite that the sky is blue – an essay advising: just because something appears

obvious to you, doesn't mean it's obvious to everyone


26 of 29 12/12/2014 8:38 PM

Notes

^ See this July 2007 discussion for more detail on why scrolling reference lists should not be used.1.

Further reading

Concordia Libraries (Concordia University). Citation and Style Guides (http://library.concordia.ca

/help/howto/citations.html).

Ritter, R. (2002). The Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198605641

The Writers' Workshop, Center for Writing Studies. "Citation Styles Handbook: APA"

(http://web.archive.org/web/20070206163440/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop

/writer_resources/citation_styles/apa/apa.htm), University of Illinois.

The Writers' Workshop, Center for Writing Studies. "Citation Styles Handbook: MLA"

(http://web.archive.org/web/20070208034206/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop

/writer_resources/citation_styles/mla/mla.htm), University of Illinois.

University of Chicago Press. (2003). The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. ISBN 0-226-10403-6

A writer's practical guide to MLA documentation (http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/library

/mla/practical_guide.shtml)

AMA Citation Style (http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm)

Chicago/Turabian Documentation (http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChiWorksCited.html)

Citation Guide – Turabian (http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/turabian.pdf) PDF

Guide to Citation Style Guides (http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/journalism/cite.html)

Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.nlm.nih.gov

/bsd/uniform_requirements.html)

American Chemical Society reference style guidelines (http://pubs.acs.org/books/references.shtml)

Citation Machine (http://citationmachine.net/)

How to write citations (http://howtowritecitations.com/)

Key Wikipedia policies and guidelines

OverviewFive pillars · Policies and guidelines · List of policies and guidelines (List of policies ·

List of guidelines)

Project-wide principles Consensus · Dispute resolution · Editing policy · Ignore all rules · What Wikipedia is not

Core content policies Neutral point of view · No original research · Verifiability

Other content policies Article titles · Biographies of living persons · Deletion · Image use

Content guidelines

Citing sources · Disambiguation · Do not create hoaxes ·

Do not include copies of primary sources · Treatment of fringe theories ·

Identifying reliable sources · Notability · Patent nonsense


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Behavioural policiesChild protection · Civility · Courtesy vanishing · Edit warring · Harassment · No legal threats

· No personal attacks · Ownership of articles · Sock puppetry

Behavioural guidelinesAssume good faith · Conflict of interest · Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point ·

Etiquette · Gaming the system · Please do not bite the newcomers

Editing guidelinesArticle size · Be bold · Hatnotes · Signatures · Subpages · Talk page guidelines · User pages ·

Vandalism · WikiProjects

Style conventionsManual of Style (Contents) · Accessibility (Understandability) · Dates and numbers · Images

· Layout · Lead section · Linking · Lists

Classification guidelines Categories, lists, and navigation templates · Categorization · Template namespace

Wikimedia Foundation List of policies · Licensing and copyright · Privacy policy · Values

Book · Category: Policies / Guidelines

Wikipedia referencing

GeneralBiographies of living persons · Identifying reliable sources · Offline sources ·

Overview of referencing styles · Verifiability

Citing sourcesCitation Style 1 · Citation Style 2 · Citation Style Vancouver · LSA · Comics · Citation templates ·

Reflist template

Inline citationsEmbedded citations · Footnotes · Parenthetical referencing · Punctuation and footnotes ·

Shortened footnotes · Footnote1 · Footnote2 · Footnote3 · Footnote4

Help for beginnersCitations quick reference · Introduction to referencing · Referencing with citation templates ·

Referencing without using templates · Referencing dos and don'ts

Advanced help

Cite link labels · Citation tools · Cite errors · Cite messages ·

Converting between references formats · Reference display customization ·

References and page numbers

Help templates {{Edit refs}} · {{Reflist newuser}} · {{Refref}} · {{Refref2}} · {{Refstart}}

Italics indicate deprecated or obsolete content.

Citation Style 1 · noticeboard

General

templates

{{Cite arXiv}}: arXiv preprint · {{Cite AV media}}: audio and visual · {{Cite AV media notes}}:

audio and visual liner notes · {{Cite book}}: books · {{Cite conference}}: conference papers ·

{{Cite DVD notes}}: DVD liner notes · {{Cite encyclopedia}}: edited collections · {{Cite episode}}:

radio or television episodes · {{Cite interview}}: interviews · {{Cite journal}}: magazines, journals,

academic papers · {{Cite mailing list}}: public mailing lists · {{Cite map}}: maps · {{Cite news}}:

news articles · {{Cite newsgroup}}: online newsgroups · {{Cite podcast}}: audio or video podcast ·

{{Cite press release}}: press releases · {{Cite serial}}: audio or video serials · {{Cite sign}}: signs,

plaques · {{Cite speech}}: speeches · {{Cite techreport}}: technical reports · {{Cite thesis}}: theses ·

{{Cite web}}: web sources


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Identifier-based

templates

{{Cite doi}}: DOI · {{Cite hdl}}: Handle · {{Cite isbn}}: ISBN · {{Cite jstor}}: JSTOR ·

{{Cite pmid}} ({{CitePMIDs}}): PMID

Categories Citation Style 1 templates

Documentation {{Citation Style documentation}}

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Citing_sources&oldid=637553011"

Categories: Wikipedia content guidelines General style guidelines Wikipedia how-to

Wikipedia verifiability Citation formats

This page was last modified on 11 December 2014 at 00:51.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms mayapply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered

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